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Foremanship 


THE  STANDARD  COURSE 


OF  THE 

UNITED  Y.  M.  C.  A.  SCHOOLS 


BOOK  I 
THE  FOREMAN  AND  HIS  JOB 

BOOK  II 
MATERIALS  AND  THEIR  HANDLING 

BOOK  III 
EQUIPMENT  AND  MACHINERY 

BOOK  IV 
ORGANIZATION  AND  MANAGEMENT 


COU^"^ 


Foremanship 


Directing  Editor 
Leon  Pratt  Alford 

General  Editor 
William  Jessup  Sholar 


Authors  of  Texts 

Wallace  Clark  Joseph  W.  Roe 

Walter  N.  Polakov         Harry  Tipper 


Authors  of  Reading  Assignments 

The  Story  of  Industry Leon  Pratt  Alford 

Creative  Spirit  in  Industry.. ..Robert  B.  Wolf 

The  Story  of  Raw  Materials, 

Frank  O.  Clements 

Incentive  and  Initiative.... Chas.  P.  Steinmetz 

The  Story  of  Labor  Saving  Machinery, 

George  F.  Barber 

Cooperative  Development  of  the 

Individual Charles  R.  Towson 

The  Story  of  Management, 

Henry  Wood  Shelton 

Industrial  Leadership Henry  L.  Gantt 


The  Foreman 
And  His  Job 


Part  I 

BY 

WALLACE  CLARK 
Part  II 

BY 

HARRY  TIPPER 


BOOK  I 


ASSOCIATION    PRESS 

New  York:  347  Madison  Avenue 
1921 


Copyright,  1921,  by 

The  International  Committee  ok 

Young  Men's  Christian  Associations 

(Printed  in  the    United  States  of  America) 

All  Rights  Reserved 


BOSTiffl  COLLEGE  UBRflRT 

CHKTMUT  Mil    ««    07W 


PREFACE 

'  The  work  and  duties  of  foremen  in  industrial 
plants  have  undergone  sweeping  changes  during 
the  past  decade.  While  greater  responsibilities 
for  getting  out  the  product  have  been  placed  upon 
them,  they  have  been  all  too  frequently  left  alone 
without  training  sufficient  to  meet  the  new  condi- 
tions as  effectively  as  could  be  wished.  Foremen 
constitute  by  far  the  largest  executive  group  in 
industry — the  group  that  gets  things  done.  For- 
merly, the  foreman's  job  was  many-sided.  He 
had  to  look  after  the  purchasing  of  materials  and 
supplies,  the  repairing  of  machinery  and  equip- 
ment, the  designing  and  making  of  special  tools, 
the  securing  of  manufacturing  orders,  the  keeping 
of  workmen's  time,  the  setting  of  wage  rates,  and 
the  hiring  and  firing  of  workers.  These  functions, 
in  part  or  in  whole,  are  still  his  in  many  small 
plants;  but  in  large  ones  they  have  been  trans- 
ferred to  wTell-organized  departments  managed  by 
trained  men — sometimes  schooled  specialists. 

Modern  industrial  methods,  however,  make  it 
necessary  for  a  foreman  to  have  fairly  exact 
knowledge  of  many  things  not  required  even  ten 
years  ago.  Among  these  new  duties  may  be  men- 
tioned the  economic  control  of  the  process  of 
manufacture,  the  profitable  utilization  of  time,  the 
efficient  handling  of  equipment,  the  keeping  of 
correct  records,  and  the  proper  management  of 
workers. 

To  meet  these  new  duties  and  to  assume  the 
responsibilities  imposed  by  them,  many  foremen, 

-L  w  ik  O  '.'.£  CA 


viii  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

undertaken  by  Mr.  Tipper,  who  prepared  Part  II 
of  all  four  books. 

The  Reading  Assignments  were  prepared  by 
men  whose  names  carry  weight  for  ability  and 
reputation  in  the  great  field  of  industry.  They 
are  Leon  P.  Alford,  George  F.  Barber,  Frank  O. 
Clements,  Henry  L.  Gantt,  Henry  W.  Shelton, 
Charles  P.  Steinmetz,  Charles  R.  Towson,  and 
Robert  B.  Wolf. 

These  authors,  both  of  Texts  and  Reading  As- 
signments, have  contributed  willingly  and  gladly 
to  making  the  course  interesting  and  instructive. 
Special  credit  is  due  Messrs.  Alford,  Barber,  Tip- 
per, and  Wolf  for  their  advice  and  counsel  in  the 
many  conferences  which  led  to  the  planning  of  the 
content  of  the  course,  and  for  subsequent  assist- 
ance in  coordinating  the  work  of  the  various 
authors.  Mr.  Alford,  especially,  as  Directing 
Editor,  has  been  unremitting  in  his  contribution 
of  time  and  knowledge,  both  in  formulating  the 
outline  of  the  course  and  in  reading  the  authors' 
manuscripts. 

This  Foremanship  Course  is,  therefore,  the 
composite  product  of  able  men  working  together 
to  serve  industry  by  helping  the  foreman  to  under- 
stand how  big  his  job  is,  and  to  equip  himself  to 
fill  it  so  well  that  he  will  become,  in  the  highest 
sense,  a  capable  manager  of  men  and  an  efficient 
supervisor  of  production. 

William  Jessup  Sholar, 

General  Editor. 


A  TALK  WITH  THE  FOREMAN 

In  taking  up  this  study  of  foremanship,  let  it  be 
understood  that  you  are  not  expected  to  surrender 
any  ideas  which  have  been  worked  out  in  your 
own  experience  to  the  profit  of  your  men  and  of 
the  company.  You  will,  however,  most  likely  find 
in  the  course  suggestions  which  will  supplement 
your  own  experiences  and  make  them  even  more 
profitable  in  securing  production. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  you  approach  the  course 
with  a  mind  entirely  open,  for  in  that  spirit  only 
is  it  possible  for  a  man  to  get  the  most  good  out 
of  anything.  The  fact  is,  that  while  your  own 
experiences  are  valuable  and  you  necessarily  rely 
upon  them,  the  experiences  of  other  foremen  in 
other  plants  are  equally  valuable  if  you  can  get 
hold  of  them.  That  is  exactly  what  this  course 
brings  to  you — the  composite  experiences  of  many 
foremen  and  industrial  engineers.  It  is,  there- 
fore, worthy  of  your  earnest  study.  It  will  also 
be  well  worth  while  for  you  to  test,  in  your  own 
work,  the  practices  here  set  forth  in  so  far  as  you 
can  apply  them.  In  that  way  only  will  you  be  able 
to  derive  the  largest  benefit  from  the  course. 

Begin,  then,  by  reading  carefully  the  booklet 
called  "Foremanship — A  Key  to  the  Course," 
which  tells  you  in  an  interesting  way  how  this 
course  was  built.  Familiarize  yourself,  especially, 
with  the  chart  outline  of  the  course  which  you  will 
find  in  that  introductory  booklet.  There  are  two 
reasons  for  this  close  study  of  the  contents  of  the 
entire  course,  namely: 


x  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

First,  the  whole  subject  of  foremanship  will  be 
seen  in  its  coordinate  relationships. 

Second,  you  will  thus  quickly  become  familiar 
with  this  modern  method  of  presenting  text  ma- 
terial. 

You  will  note  that  there  are  two  collateral  divi- 
sions shown  in  the  chart  outline.  These  are  Part 
I :  The  Job,  and  Part  II :  The  Foreman.  You 
will  realize  that  the  course  is  treating,  in  Part 
I,  of  your  job,  or  the  technique  of  foremanship ; 
while  Part  II  treats  of  the  development  of  you, 
the  man,  in  your  relationship,  as  a  foreman,  with 
your  fellowmen.  This  plan  is  carried  through 
each  of  the  sixteen  chapters  which  make  up  the 
four  books. 

Let  me  call  your  attention,  also,  to  the  series  of 
Reading  Assignments  prepared  by  men  who  are, 
by  experience,  well  equipped  to  write  on  the  sub- 
jects treated  by  them.  These  give  you,  in  an  in- 
teresting way,  additional  information  which  you 
may  not  have  time  to  secure  through  your  own 
research  or  collateral  reading.  You  will  note  that 
each  Reading  Assignment  relates  itself  to  Part  I 
or  Part  II,  respectively,  of  each  book.  There  is, 
too,  another  feature  of  the  course,  as  shown  in 
the  outline,  which  you  should  understand  is  of 
vital  importance;  namely,  the  Project — the  solu- 
tion of  which  will  enable  you  to  apply  the  prin- 
ciples set  forth  in  the  textbooks  and  their  accom- 
panying Reading  Assignments.  And,  too,  in 
working  out  a  Project  you  will  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  exercise  your  own  initiative. 


A  Talk  with  the  Foreman  xi 

Plan  of  Handling  Material 

If  you  are  a  member  of  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  class  in 
foremanship,  you  probably  will  receive  the  ma- 
terial of  the  course  as  follows :  At  the  meeting 
when  the  class  is  organized,  Book  I  will  be  given 
you.  When  the  class  meets  for  its  first  session, 
you  should  receive  Project  No.  One.  At  the  sec- 
ond class  meeting,  the  first  Reading  Assignment 
will  be  passed  out.  At  the  third  session,  the  sec- 
ond Reading  Assignment  will  be  placed  in  your 
hands.  You  will  then  have  received  a  complete 
Study  Unit — a  Textbook,  two  Reading  Assign- 
ments, and  a  Project.  At  this  fourth  class  meet- 
ing there  should  be  a  discussion  of  Project  No. 
One,  and  you  should  ask  such  questions  as  will 
clear  up  anything  about  it  which  you  may  not 
understand.  Book  II  will  be  given  to  you  at  this 
session,  and  thereafter  a  Study  Unit  will  be  dis- 
tributed in  the  order  already  indicated. 

How  to  Study 

In  approaching  the  study  of  each  chapter  let  us 
remember  that  it  is  divided  into  two  parts.  Part 
I  presents  The  Job,  or  the  mechanics  of  foreman- 
ship;  while  Part  II  considers  The  Foreman  in  rela- 
tion to  his  job,  to  his  fellowmen,  and  to  himself 
as  a  man  whose  powers  need  to  be  developed  con- 
sistently and  intelligently  in  order  to  achieve 
worthwhile  success.  These  two  parts  of  each 
chapter  should  be  studied  in  the  light  of  their  vital 
relationship.  They  are  closely  interlocked,  so 
that  neither  part  taken  by  itself  can  give  full  value 


xii  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

to  the  student.  This  is  an  important  point;  for, 
if  you  miss  any  portion  of  either  part,  you  will  find 
yourself  crippled  in  the  next  chapter.  Do  not 
slight  a  page  nor  a  paragraph. 

Foremanship  is  not  a  subject  to  be  "soaked  up." 
It  is  not  a  dry,  abstract  body  of  knowledge,  but 
an  activity;  and  to  master  it  presupposes  activity 
in  the  student.  You  must  work — work  with  earn- 
estness and  concentration.  "The  sun  never  burns 
until  its  rays  are  focused."  Focus  your  thought, 
therefore,  on  this  course;  for — 

//  you  put  little  into  this  study,  you 
will  get  little  out;  if  you  put  in  much,  the 
range  of  your  possible  benefit  is  limitless. 

Note  carefully  the  headings  so  that  you  may 
know  precisely  what  each  chapter  and  section  and 
paragraph  teaches.  Underline  the  sentences  that 
seem  to  contain  the  meat  of  the  paragraph.  Go 
back  every  little  while  for  review,  not  only  to 
clinch  your  knowledge  of  the  previous  section,  but 
also  to  make  the  present  and  future  chapters 
easier.  Get  the  notebook  habit.  Jot  down  any 
idea  that  strikes  you  as  most  vital;  and  carry  the 
notebook  in  your  pocket  for  reference  when  the 
text  is  not  handy. 

Get  All  the  Benefits 

When  you  complete  a  chapter — that  is,  after 
the  class  has  discussed  it — turn  to  the  questions 
at  the  end  of  the  chapter  and  answer  them  to 
yourself.  If  there  are  any  that  you  cannot  answer 
fully  and  clearly,  go  back  to  the  text  and  find  the 


A  Talk  with  the  Foreman  xiii 

answer.  Upon  receiving  a  Reading  Assignment, 
read  it  as  soon  as  possible — read  it  twice.  Com- 
pare its  statements  with  what  the  textbook  says 
and  note  the  points  of  agreement  or  disagreement, 
if  any. 

When  a  Project  is  given  you,  work  it  out  while 
the  whole  book  is  fresh  in  mind.  The  Project  is 
designed  to  crystallize  some  of  the  principal  ideas 
of  the  book  into  a  concrete  situation  for  you  to 
work  out.  It  is  a  test  of  your  grasp  of  the  prac- 
tices and  methods  enunciated.  You  alone  lose  if 
you  do  not  work  out  the  Projects. 

Take  part  in  the  class  or  group  discussions.  Ask 
questions  and  do  your  full  share  when  called  upon 
by  the  instructor,  or  group  leader,  to  give  a  state- 
ment of  your  opinion.  You  thus  help  yourself  and 
the  other  members  of  the  class.  Pursue  the  course 
faithfully  and  get  the  benefit  which  is  to  be  de- 
rived from  the  experiences  of  others.  You  must 
always  be  a  learner;  for  "Instruction  ends  with 
the  schoolroom,  education  ends  only  zvith  life*' 
Knowledge  of  a  trade  or  profession  is  the  tool 
with  which  we  do  our  work;  the  skill  that  distin- 
guishes the  master  is  acquired  only  by  practice. 

This  course  should  help  you,  not  only  to  master 
your  job  as  a  foreman,  but  also  to  understand  the 
laws  of  successful  living,  so  that  you  will  take 
your  proper  place  in  the  social  order  and  serve 
humanity  efficiently.  Thereby  you  will  inevitably 
deserve  and  receive  just  reward  and  happiness. 

Arthur  H.  Myer, 

Director,  Department  of  Commerce. 


CONTENTS 


SECTION  PAGE 

Preface    v 

A  Talk  with  the  Foreman ix 


CHAPTER  1 

PART  I:  THE  JOB 

The  Foreman's  Place  in  Industry 

I.     Importance  of  the  Foreman 3 

II.    Responsibilities  of  the  Foreman 9 

III.  Types  of  Foremen  Who  Fail 13 

IV.  Types  of  Foremen  Who  Succeed 20 

PART  II:   THE  FOREMAN 

The  Foreman  and  Management 

I.    The  Foreman  and  the  Workers 25 

II.    The  Foreman  as  Interpreter 31 

III.  The  Foreman  as  Subordinate 37 

IV.  The  Foreman  as  Instructor 43 

Ask  Yourself  These  Questions  and  Answer  Them..  48 

CHAPTER  2 

PART  I:  THE  JOB 

Basic  Factors  in  Production 

I.    Utilizing  the  Time  of  Labor 51 

II.     Controlling  the  Cost  of  Production 64 

III.     Maintaining  the  Quality  of  the  Product 72 

PART  II:  THE  FOREMAN 

The  Foreman  and  Production 

I.    The  Foreman  and  the  Operations 78 

II.    The  Foreman  and  the  Operators 83 

III.  The  Foreman  and  the  System 89 

IV.  The  Foreman  and  the  Work 95 

Questions  for  You  to  Answer 100 


CHAPTER  3 

PART  I:   THE  JOB 

Methods  of  Getting  Production 

SECTION  PAGE 

I.     Getting  Things  Done  on  Time 103 

II.     Visualizing  the  Progress  of  Work 116 

III.     Making  Sure  of  Adequate  Supplies 130 

PART  II:  THE  FOREMAN 

The  Foreman  and  Labor 

I.     The  Foreman  and  the  Man 135 

II.     The  Foreman  and  the  Conditions 140 

III.  The  Foreman  and  the  Organization 145 

IV.  The  Foreman  and  the  Product 151 

Questions  for  You  to  Answer 160 


CHAPTER  4 

PART  I:  THE  JOB 

Departmental  Relationships 

I.     Service  Organized  for  the  Foreman 163 

II.     Service  by  the  Foreman  for  His  Associates 175 

III.     Service  to  the  Management  by  the  Foreman 181 

PART  II:  THE  FOREMAN 

The  Foreman  and  the  Social  Order 

I.     The  Foreman  and  the  Community 188 

II.     The  Foreman  and  the  Public 193 

III.  The  Foreman  and  the  Town 198 

IV.  The  Foreman  and  the  Government 203 

Questions  for  You  to  Answer 208 


Chapter  1 


Part  I 
THE  FOREMAN'S  PLACE  IN  INDUSTRY 


Part  II 
THE   FOREMAN  AND   MANAGEMENT 


Part  I:    The  Job 

THE  FOREMAN'S  PLACE  IN  INDUSTRY 

Section  I 
Importance  of  the  Foreman 

The  Evolution  of  Foremanship. — "The  main- 
tenance of  our  modern  civilization  is  dependent 
absolutely  upon  the  service  it  gets  from  the 
industrial  and  business  system."  It  is  not  now 
necessary  to  support  this  statement,  made  by  a 
famous  engineer,  H.  L.  Gantt,  by  referring  to 
the  effect  of  the  partial  paralysis  of  our  transpor- 
tation facilities,  of  coal  mining,  or  of  the  steel 
industry.  We  do  not  realize  until  we  stop  to 
think  of  it  how  much  we  are  dependent  on  the 
daily  service  we  get  from  industrial  organizations 
of  one  kind  or  another. 

Until  recently  the  administration  of  most 
American  manufacturing  plants  has  been  in  the 
hands  of  one  or  two  men  in  each  plant.  These 
men,  who  were  the  owners  or  their  representa- 
tives, made  all  the  important  decisions,  but  as 
they  became  more  and  more  removed  from  the 
actual  operation  of  the  business,  their  administra- 
tion became  less  effective.  During  the  Great  War, 
the  mistakes  and  delays  in  the  production  of  war 
materials  were  due  largely  to  the  practice  of  re- 
ferring matters  for  decision  to  a  central  head- 
quarters where  it  was  not  possible  to  have  all 
the   facts  available.      Even  before  the   armistice 


4  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

the  tide  had  begun  to  turn  toward  decentralization 
of  control  where  decisions  are  made  by  men  who 
know  the  facts  because  they  are  close  to  the  job. 
This  movement  toward  decentralization  is  spread- 
ing slowly  throughout  American  industry  and 
more  and  more  responsibility  is  being  placed  on 
the  foreman — the  man  who  "knows  what  to  do 
and  how  to  do  it." 

Forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  when  shops  were  small, 
the  owner  was  usually  the  best  workman  and 
showed  the  others  how  to  do  a  job.  He  told  each 
one  what  to  do,  he  bought  material,  and,  when 
the  work  was  finished,  saw  that  it  was  shipped. 
He  also  saw  to  it  that  bills  were  sent  out,  and 
frequently  collected  the  money  himself. 

As  shops  grew  larger  it  was  impossible  for 
the  owner  to  look  after  all  the  important  parts 
of  his  work,  so  he  delegated  some  duties  to  others. 
To  a  Sales  Department  he  delegated  the  task  of 
finding  out  what  goods  were  needed  and  when;  to 
an  Engineering  Department  the  task  of  determin- 
ing what  materials  should  be  used,  what  machines 
or  equipment  were  needed,  and  the  processes 
through  which  the  material  should  go;  to  a  Pur- 
chasing Department  the  task  of  securing  the  ma- 
terial; to  an  Employment  Department  the  task 
of  securing  the  necessary  workmen;  to  the  fore- 
men the  task  of  bringing  together  the  workmen, 
material,  machines,  and  processes  and  producing 
the  goods;  and  finally,  to  the  Sales  Department 
the  task  of  distributing  the  goods  manufactured. 


Importance  of  the  Foreman  5 

In  the  expansion  of  American  industry  this  type 
of  organization  was  developed  as  the  owner  was 
forced  to  delegate  his  duties,  one  by  one.  These 
different  parts  of  the  business  are  not  always  as 
clearly  defined  in  small  plants  as  in  large  ones. 
In  such  an  organization  the  foreman  is  the  prac- 
tical man.  He  is  like  the  lens  of  a  camera  which 
focuses  the  rays  of  light  from  a  whole  landscape, 
upon  a  small  photographic  plate. 

The  foreman  takes  the  knowledge  of 
all  the  other  parts  of  the  industrial 
organization  and  focuses  it  on  the  work. 

The  Foreman  Combines  the  Production  Fac- 
tors.— There  are  four  production  factors  with 
which  the  foreman  has  to  deal.    These  are 

The  Workman, 

The  Material, 

The  Machine, 

The  Process. 
It  is  the  job  of  the  foreman  to  combine  these 
factors  in  proper  and  efficient  relations  so  as  to 
produce  a  finished  article  of  commerce.  In  small 
plants,  the  foreman  himself  selects  and  hires  the 
workmen;  but  in  large  plants,  where  organization 
is  expanded  for  the  purpose  of  greater  efficiency, 
the  foreman  no  longer  hires  the  workmen.  He 
does,  however,  determine  what  men  are  needed 
and  makes  requisition  upon  the  Employment  De- 
partment for  them.  In  such  plants  each  job  has 
been  standardized  so  that  the  qualifications  neces- 
sary in  the  workmen  are  card  indexed  in  the  Em- 
ployment Department,  which  keeps  in  touch  with 


6  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

the  sources  of  supply  for  men  of  the  kind  wanted 
and  with  the  market  price  of  labor.  It  carefully 
studies  the  applicants  and  decides  as  to  their  fit- 
ness for  the  work.  This  saves  a  great  deal  of 
the  foreman's  time,  but  he  must  still  devote  suffi- 
cient time  to  the  training  of  these  men  to  enable 
them  to  do  their  wrork  properly. 

The  only  sure  way  to  tell  whether  or 
not  a  man  can  do  a  job  is  to  try  him  out 
on  that  job. 

The  Engineering  Department,  or  some  one  who 
has  adequate  knowledge,  determines  the  material 
from  which  the  goods  shall  be  made.  In  doing 
this,  in  many  plants  exhaustive  experiments  must 
be  made  and  chemists,  metallurgists,  and  other 
experts  must  be  consulted.  When  the  specifica- 
tions are  worked  out,  the  Purchasing  Department 
goes  out  into  the  market  and  buys  the  material. 
It  must  keep  in  close  touch  with  continual  changes 
in  market  conditions  and  in  suppliers.  Its  task  is 
made  more  difficult  by  the  necessity  for  weighing 
the  relative  importance  of  date  of  delivery,  of 
cost,  and  of  quality.  When  the  material  is  re- 
ceived it  is  kept  by  the  storekeeper  until  the  fore- 
man is  ready  to  use  it. 

The  machine  or  equipment  best  suited  to  do 
the  work  is  also  determined  by  the  Engineering 
Department,  or  some  one  familiar  with  the  de- 
sign of  modern  machinery  and  with  the  machines 
on  the  market.  The  Purchasing  Department  buys 
the  machine  and  delivers  it  to  the  foreman. 


Importance  of  the  Foreman  7 

The  Engineering  Department,  or  a  man  who 
has  technical  knowledge  and  experience,  works 
out  the  processes  of  manufacture — the  method  of 
applying  the  machine  to  the  material  in  order  to 
produce  the  finished  article  of  commerce.  This 
information  is  given  to  the  foreman  in  the  form 
of  blue  prints,  written  instructions,  by  word  of 
mouth,  or,  frequently,  it  is  common  knowledge 
handed  down  from  one  workman  to  another.  Into 
the  development  of  these  processes  and  the  design 
of  these  machines  have  gone  centuries  of  experi- 
ment and  investigation  in  all  the  sciences. 

The  Foreman  Puts  Theory  into  Practice. — A 
good  foreman  does  not  hesitate  to  use  the  theories 
or  knowledge  of  other  men;  in  fact,  his  success 
depends  almost  entirely  upon  his  ability  to  make 
use  of  the  knowledge  of  other  men.  He  learns 
just  as  much  as  possible  about  materials  and 
processes,  but  no  one  can  know  everything.  His 
job  is  to  get  information  wherever  he  can  and 
make  use  of  it.  He  exercises  his  ingenuity  in 
making  that  knowledge  practical. 

In  establishing  any  scientific  fact  it  is  necessary 
to  go  through  a  great  deal  of  experimenting.  A 
wise  foreman  lets  scientists  do  that  experimenting 
and  then  takes  the  result  of  their  work  and  ap- 
plies it  to  his  particular  task.  He  realizes  that 
modern  business  is  so  complicated  and  its  problems 
so  varied  that,  in  order  to  work  out  the  best 
processes,  build  the  best  machines,  or  develop  the 
best  methods  of  getting  work  done,  there  must  be 
specialists  who  devote  their  entire  time  and  atten- 


8  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

tion  to  that  kind  of  work.  It  is  natural  that  such 
men  should  know  more  about  their  specialty  than 
the  average  man.  If  one  of  these  specialists  can- 
not tell  a  foreman  just  exactly  how  to  accomplish 
the  result  he  is  after,  that  is  no  reason  why  his 
ideas  should  be  discarded.  Frequently  it  needs 
only  the  practical  point  of  view  of  a  foreman  to 
make  that  idea  work.  All  the  scientific  knowledge 
printed  in  books,  shown  on  drawings,  or  embodied 
in  machines  and  processes  is  useless  until  the  fore- 
man makes  use  of  it  in  bringing  together  the  work- 
man, the  material,  the  machine,  and  the  process. 

The  job  of  the  foreman  is 
to  put  theory  into  practice. 

The  Foreman  Holds  the  Key  to  Productive  Ca- 
pacity.— There  is  a  growing  appreciation  of  the 
fact  that  the  "value  of  an  industrial  plant  is  de- 
termined by  its  productive  capacity"  and  not  by 
the  inventory  value  of  the  land,  buildings,  and 
equipment.  The  foreman  holds  the  key  to  this 
productive  capacity.  Think  of  the  strategic  posi- 
tion occupied  by  the  foremen  of  our  grain  ele- 
vators, the  yardmasters  of  the  railroads,  and  the 
foremen  of  flour  mills.  We  are  really  dependent 
upon  them  for  the  bread  we  eat,  since  they  stand 
between  us  and  the  wheat  fields. 

The  way  in  which  the  foreman  handles  his 
job  has  a  profound  effect  on  the  public,  but  an 
even  greater  effect  on  the  worker.  His  life  and 
his  future  are  in  the  hands  of  the  foreman.  The 
foreman  is  the  point  of  contact  between  the  work- 
men and  the  management.      In  the  eyes   of  the 


Responsibilities  of  the  Foreman  9 

workmen  he  is  the  management,  and  the  success 
of  the  policies  of  the  management  depends  largely 
upon  their  interpretation  by  the  foreman.  The 
management  may  have  a  broad  and  generous  atti- 
tude toward  employes,  but  it  is  absolutely  nullified 
by  a  foreman  who  is  close  and  selfish  in  his  treat- 
ment of  the  men  under  his  charge. 

The  foreman  must  also  present  to  his  superior 
officers  the  attitude  of  the  workmen  toward  the 
company.  This  is  not  a  light  responsibility,  for 
the  actions  of  his  superior  officers  are  largely  in- 
fluenced by  what  he  tells  them. 

Section  II 
Responsibilities  of  the  Foreman 

The  Foreman  Must  Get  the  Work  Done. — It 
is  the  foreman's  job  to  get  work  done.  He 
may  be  the  best  workman  and  so  be  able  to  turn 
out  more  work  and  better  work  than  any  of  his 
men.  This  is  a  great  advantage,  but  that  is  not 
the  kind  of  ability  which  determines  the  selection 
of  a  foreman.  The  only  reason  for  putting  him 
in  control  over  other  men  is  because  of  his  greater 
ability  to  get  work  done.  This  does  not  mean 
the  ability  to  drive  employes  to  spectacular  stunts, 
or  to  push  one  job  through  in  record  time  at  the 
expense  of  other  equally  important  work.  It 
means  the  ability  to  judge  the  comparative  impor- 
tance of  the  various  kinds  of  work  assigned  to 
him  and  to  get  the  work  done  in  the  order  of  its 
importance. 


10  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

To  accomplish  these  results  the  foreman  needs 
all  the  qualifications  of  a  good  executive.  There 
may  be  men  under  him  who  have  greater  tech- 
nical knowledge  than  he  has  and  greater  mechan- 
ical skill,  but  he  holds  his  position  because  of  his 
greater  ability  to  overcome  difficulties  and  get 
things  done. 

However,  the  foreman  cannot  have  an  abso- 
lutely free  hand  in  getting  work  done,  for  he  is 
limited  by  three  elements,  namely:  Time,  Cost, 
Quality.  He  must  get  the  work  done  at  the 
proper  time,  at  a  reasonable  cost,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  a  definite  standard  of  quality. 

The  Element  of  Time  Is  Gauged  by  the  Work- 
man and  the  Machine. — The  time  when  the  work 
should  be  finished  is  usually  determined  by  the 
superintendent  and  the  Sales  Department,  after 
considering  the  needs  of  customers  and  the  other 
work  ahead  in  the  plant.  The  foreman,  who 
probably  does  only  a  part  of  the  work  on  any 
article,  cannot,  of  course,  know  how  the  work  is 
progressing  in  other  departments  of  the  shop,  so 
he  makes  no  attempt  to  determine  the  proper 
sequence  of  the  orders  he  has  in  mind,  but  de- 
pends entirely  on  instructions  received  from  the 
superintendent.  However,  in  order  to  get  work 
done  on  time,  the  foreman  must  plan  the  handling 
of  his  orders  carefully  so  as  to  make  the  best 
possible  use  of  his  workmen  and  his  machines. 

The  Element  of  Cost  Is  Regulated  by  Produc- 
tion Methods. — The  cost  of  material  is  of  course 
dependent  upon  market  conditions  and  is  looked 


Responsibilities  of  the  Foreman  11 

after  by  the  Purchasing  Department.  The  cost 
of  doing  the  work  (applying  labor  to  the  material) 
is,  however,  almost  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the 
foreman  and  it  is  his  aim  to  do  the  necessary  work 
in  as  short  a  time  as  possible  without  wasting 
material.  In  order  to  do  this  he  must  know  the 
best  method,  must  keep  his  machines  in  such  con- 
dition that  they  can  turn  out  accurate  work,  must 
give  his  workmen  full  instructions  as  to  how  the 
work  is  to  be  done,  and  must  see  that  it  is  done 
in  accordance  with  those  instructions. 

The  Element  of  Quality  Should  Be  Stand- 
ardized.— The  Engineering  Department,  the  Sales 
Department,  and  the  superintendent  usually  agree 
on  the  standard  of  quality  after  considering  the 
customer's  wants  and  the  probable  cost.  The  Sales 
Department  investigates  market  conditions  and 
concludes  that  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the  company 
to  produce  goods  of  a  certain  grade  in  order  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  buyers.  The  Engineer- 
ing Department  translates  this  into  definite  speci- 
fications, which  the  superintendent  places  in  the 
hands  of  the  inspectors.  The  foreman  accepts 
this  standard  of  quality  and  attempts  to  turn  out 
work  which  will  pass  inspection. 

The  Relative  Importance  of  Time,  Cost,  and 
Quality. — The  time  when  the  work  is  to  be  com- 
pleted is  frequently  more  important  than  the  cost, 
and  sometimes  even  more  important  than  the 
quality.  The  judgment  of  the  foreman  must  be 
used  in  determining  the  relative  importance  of 
these   three   limiting   factors    of   time,    cost,    and 


12  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

quality.  No  rule  can  be  set  down  which  will 
apply  in  all  cases,  so  the  foreman  will  decide 
each  case  on  its  merits  after  learning  the  facts: 
but  he  will  be  careful  to  get  the  superintendent's 
approval  of  his  action  if  it  is  out  of  the  ordinary. 

Complex  Problems  Confronting  the  Foreman. 
Industry  is  today  very  much  more  complicated 
than  it  was  even  a  fewT  years  ago.  It  is  not  very 
many  years  since  the  output  of  nearly  all  plants 
was  sold  within  a  radius  of  one  hundred  miles  of 
those  plants.  Today,  however,  the  distribution 
of  the  product  of  some  plants  is  limited  only  by 
the  extent  of  railways  and  steamship  lines.  In 
this  expansion  and  the  attempt  to  satisfy  the 
greater  variety  of  needs,  the  complications  both 
in  manufacturing  and  distribution  have  increased. 
However,  the  mere  complexity  of  business  does 
not  stagger  the  modern  business  man. 

The  foreman's  job,  being  such  an  important 
part  of  the  business  system,  has  also  become  more 
complex.  Processes  have  become  more  compli- 
cated and  at  the  same  time  the  productive  capacity 
has  increased  enormously.  The  foreman's  job 
today  is  as  different  from  what  it  was  twenty-five 
years  ago  as  an  automobile  is  from  a  buggy.  The 
mechanism  of  an  automobile  is  very  complex  when 
compared  with  that  of  the  buggy  and  it  gets  out 
of  order  much  more  frequently,  but  who  wTould 
think  of  going  back  to  the  old  uone  hoss  shay"? 
Nor  would  the  foreman  of  the  modern  shop 
think  of  going  back  to  the  methods  of  the  old- 
fashioned  shop. 


Types  of  Foremen  Who  Fail  13 

The  foreman  is  not  bewildered  by  the  size  of 
his  job  nor  its  complexity;  and  in  attempting  to 
increase  his  knowledge  of  modern  methods  he 
will  not  expect  to  have  the  matter  presented  to 
him  in  as  simple  a  way  as  it  was  usually  done 
twenty-five  years  ago.  Such  a  difficult  problem 
cannot  be  made  to  read  as  easily  as  a  magazine 
story.  It  demands  concentration,  an  honest  effort 
to  grasp  the  matter  as  it  is  presented,  and  a  desire 
to  apply  the  principles  set  forth  to  one's  daily 
work  with  intelligence  and  persistence. 


Section  HI 
Types  of  Foremen  Who  Fail 

The  Self-important  Foreman. — It  would  be 
very  interesting  to  go  over  in  your  mind  the  fore- 
men you  know  and  see  what  is  each  one's  concep- 
tion of  his  job,  and  how  he  measures  up  to  the 
idea  that  the  foreman's  job  is  to  get  work  done 
along  lines  of  modern  production  methods.  Here 
are  some  types  of  inefficient  foremen  that  you  will 
recognize : 

There  is  the  foreman  who  judges  his  importance 
by  the  number  of  people  that  work  for  him.  The 
more  men  there  are  standing  around  waiting  on 
him,  the  more  important  he  feels.  His  whole  idea 
seems  to  be  to  have  people  do  things  for  him. 

There  is  the  foreman  who  delegates  work  to 
his  subordinates  and  then  makes  all  the  decisions 


14  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

for  them.  The  result  is  that  the  foreman  carries 
on  his  shoulders  the  responsibility  for  everything 
in  his  shop.  He  is  always  complaining  that  his 
men  will  not  take  any  responsibility.  He  does  not 
realize  that  the  best  way  to  get  them  to  shoulder 
responsibility  is  to  place  the  full  burden  on  them 
as  soon  as  they  are  able  to  carry  it. 

There  is  the  foreman  who  is  happiest  when 
everyone  in  his  department  depends  upon  him  for 
information  or  instructions.  He  would  like  to 
have  the  whole  plant  depend  on  him.  He  is  usu- 
ally very  capable,  knows  his  job,  and  is  always  will- 
ing to  tell  men  how  they  should  do  their  work; 
but  as  soon  as  he  is  away  for  a  few  hours  or  a  day 
there  is  a  decided  slump,  for  his  men  are  so  used 
to  asking  him  how  that  they  forget  to  think  for 
themselves.  They  put  all  the  responsibility  on  his 
shoulders  because  they  know  he  likes  to  carry  it, 
and  since  he  insists  on  worrying  there  is  no  reason 
why  they  should.  This  type  of  foreman  seldom 
realizes  that  it  would  be  to  his  advantage  to  have 
instructions  written  down  and  looked  after  by  one 
of  his  subordinates  so  that  he  would  be  free  to 
use  his  knowledge  and  judgment  only  on  particu- 
larly difficult  problems.  He  does  not  know  how 
much  more  he  could  accomplish  in  this  way.  He 
usually  resents  any  help  which  is  offered  to  him 
from  outside  his  department,  and  when  the  man- 
agement insists  on  giving  him  any  help  or  instruc- 
tions he  takes  it  as  a  personal  insult.  These  are 
all  types  of  the  self-important  foreman. 


Types  of  Foremen  Who  Fail  15 

The  Talkative  Foreman. — There  is  the  fore- 
man who  would  rather  talk  than  do  anything  else. 
Sometimes  he  talks  about  things  not  connected  with 
the  shop,  but  usually  he  talks  about  business  mat- 
ters. He  talks  to  his  men  and  to  his  clerks,  going 
over  a  subject  again  and  again.  Every  day  he 
goes  to  the  superintendent's  office  and  talks  to  as 
many  people  there  as  will  listen  to  him,  and,  at 
the  foremen's  meetings,  if  there  are  any,  he  always 
talks — whether  he  has  anything  to  say  or  not.  He 
is  so  busy  talking  that  he  has  little  time  to  get  work 
done. 

The  Foreman  Who  Wants  to  Do  Everything 
Himself. — There  is  the  foreman  who  knows  how 
to  do  things  and  insists  on  doing  everything  him- 
self. He  cannot  even  tell  his  men  how.  If  a 
machine  is  to  be  set  up  for  a  job  that  is  a  little 
out  of  the  ordinary,  he  must  do  it  himself  to  be 
sure  that  it  is  right.  If  a  machine  is  broken  down, 
he  must  fix  it.  He  seldom  succeeds  in  getting 
much  work  out  of  his  department. 

Not  long  ago  a  superintendent  was  describing 
his  experience  with  a  foreman  of  this  kind.  His 
foreman  was  always  so  busy  repairing  a  machine, 
setting  up  for  a  job,  or  even  running  a  machine, 
that  he  had  no  time  to  run  the  department  as  a 
whole  and  plan  his  work  so  as  to  make  good  use 
of  his  machines  and  men. 

The  superintendent  tried  every  way  he  could 
to  get  that  foreman  to  realize  what  his  real  job 
was,  but  he  could  not  make  any  impression  on 
him.    Finally,  he  went  down  one  day  and  told  the 


16  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

foreman  that  his  department  was  not  being  run 
the  way  he  wanted  it  run;  that  orders  were  not 
coming  through  and  the  work  of  other  depart- 
ments was  being  held  up ;  that  when  he  came  into 
the  department  he  found  him,  the  foreman,  lying 
on  the  floor  under  a  machine  and  he  could  seldom 
get  any  accurate  information  as  to  how  a  job  was 
going.  Therefore,  he  had  made  up  his  mind  that 
a  week  from  the  following  Monday  he  was  going 
to  put  in  charge  of  that  department  a  foreman 
who  would  run  the  department  instead  of  a  single 
machine — the  kind  of  a  man  who  could  wear  a 
white  collar  and  keep  his  hands  clean.  Of  course, 
that  could  be  done  only  by  letting  his  repair  men 
and  set-up  men  do  all  the  necessary  work  on  the 
machines.  He  wanted  a  man  who  could  handle 
the  department  as  a  whole  and  get  other  men  to 
do  things  for  him.  He  told  the  foreman  that  that 
was  the  kind  of  a  man  he  was  going  to  put  on 
the  job,  and  added  that  he  wished  the  present 
foreman  would  fill  the  position. 

A  week  later  the  superintendent  came  back  and 
asked  the  man  whether  or  not  he  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  be  that  kind  of  a  foreman.  He  was  a 
little  bit  sore  about  it,  but  he  decided  he  would 
take  the  job.  The  next  Monday  morning  he 
appeared  with  a  white  collar  and  he  kept  both  the 
collar  and  his  hands  clean  all  day.  The  super- 
intendent told  him  how  glad  he  was  to  see  that 
kind  of  a  foreman  in  charge  of  the  job  and  he 
never  again  had  any  trouble  with  him. 


Types  of  Foremen  Who  Fail  17 

The  Toadying  Foreman. — There  is  the  fore- 
man who  always  keeps  his  eye  on  his  boss  and, 
if  there  are  two  or  three  men  higher  up  in  the 
organization  than  he  is,  he  is  continually  running 
to  all  of  them  telling  them  what  he  does  and  ask- 
ing them  what  they  think  about  it.  This  type  of 
man  is  more  anxious  to  stand  in  with  his  bosses 
than  he  is  to  do  his  job  right. 

There  is  another  type  of  foreman  who  wants  to 
stand  in  with  his  men.  He  thinks  that  the  best 
way  to  promote  good  feeling  is  to  let  them  do 
whatever  they  want;  so,  if  there  are  several  jobs 
ahead  of  a  man  he  lets  him  pick  out  the  easiest 
one  to  do  next.  This,  of  course,  results  in  the  hard 
jobs  being  put  off  from  day  to  day  and  the  sched- 
ules of  the  office  are  all  shot  to  pieces. 

This  man  does  not  realize  that  it  is  his  duty  to 
be  fair  both  to  the  workman  and  to  the  company, 
and  that  the  Sales  Department,  which  makes 
promises  to  customers,  is  usually  the  department 
which  should  decide  the  relative  importance  of 
jobs. 

There  is  the  foreman  who  tries  to  advance  him- 
self at  the  expense  of  everyone  around  him.  By 
clever  strategy  and  tale-bearing,  and  sometimes 
worse,  he  attempts  to  give  the  superintendent  a 
wrong  impression  of  the  other  foremen  so  that  it 
will  work  to  his  own  advantage.  He  also  calls 
the  superintendent's  attention  to  all  the  fool  mis- 
takes of  his  sub-foremen  or  his  workmen,  to  show 
that  he  is  the  only  one  in  his  department  who  uses 
his  head.     He  does  not  seem  to  realize  that  if 


18  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

they  do  not  know  how  to  do  their  jobs  it  is  a  criti- 
cism of  him  for  not  teaching  them.  If  this  fore- 
man wants  the  job  of  a  man  above  him  or  of  some 
other  man  with  more  influence  than  he  has,  he 
carries  on  a  campaign  for  the  purpose  of  dis- 
crediting him  in  the  minds  of  his  superiors,  in  the 
hope  that  he  may  eventually  step  into  his  place. 

This  type  of  man  is  always  confidential,  and 
when  he  is  giving  this  alleged  information  he  is 
continually  looking  over  his  shoulder  to  see 
whether  anyone  is  listening. 

The  Shortsighted  Foreman. — There  is  the  fore- 
man who  is  forever  complaining  of  the  shortage  of 
good  workmen  and  yet  does  not  take  any  pains  to 
make  the  best  use  of  the  good  men  he  has  or  to 
train  and  develop  more  good  workmen. 

There  is  the  foreman  who  never  openly  re- 
fuses to  follow  instructions — he  merely  fails  to  do 
things  until  it  is  too  late  and  then  blames  the 
"system"  or  anything  else  which  comes  to  his 
mind. 

There  is  the  foreman  who  is  always  willing  to 
help  some  one  else.  In  fact,  he  is  so  kind-hearted 
that  he  cannot  refuse  to  do  whatever  anyone  asks, 
even  if  it  does  interfere  with  his  own  job. 

There  is  another  kind-hearted  foreman  who  has 
a  very  hopeful  disposition;  he  is  sure  that  every- 
thing will  come  out  all  right  and  that  there  is  no 
use  worrying  about  anything.  The  result  is  that 
he  has  not  the  necessary  force  to  see  that  his 
orders  are  executed. 


Types  of  Foremen  Who  Fail  19 

There  is  the  foreman  whose  principal  idea 
seems  to  be  to  get  something  for  himself.  When- 
ever he  is  asked  to  do  anything,  his  first  thought 
is,  "What  will  I  get  out  of  it?"  When  he  does 
render  any  service,  he  always  puts  a  price  on  it 
and  attempts  to  collect  it  before  he  delivers  the 
goods. 

The  Slave-Driver  Foreman. — There  is  the 
foreman  who  thinks  that  the  only  way  to  accom- 
plish results  is  to  drive  his  men  hard.  His  voice 
can  be  heard  above  the  noise  of  the  machines  and 
he  would  be  perfectly  happy  if  he  had  a  long  whip 
in  his  hands.  This  foreman  does  not  realize  that 
men  cannot  be  driven  to  do  what  they  do  not 
know  how  to  do;  that  when  men  are  driven  they 
either  plunge  ahead  and  do  things  wrong  or  turn 
against  their  driver. 

It  is  hard  for  this  foreman  to  learn  that  his 
men  must  be  thoroughly  trained  in  the  proper 
methods  of  doing  their  work  and  then  given  an 
incentive — something  to  make  them  eager  to  use 
those  methods. 

There  is  the  foreman  who  "raises  Cain"  when- 
ever the  least  little  thing  goes  wrong.  When 
other  jobs  are  hard  to  get,  his  workmen  swallow 
his  abuse;  but  when  business  is  good  they  leave. 
He  goes  out  to  the  gate  and  hires  a  man  to  take 
the  place  of  the  workman  who  has  left,  and 
usually  gets  one  who  is  less  familiar  with  the  work 
and,  because  of  his  more  frequent  mistakes,  gives 
the  foreman  more  reason  to  lose  his  temper. 


20  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

There  is  the  foreman  who  depends  entirely  on 
his  muscle  and  his  lung  power.  Every  once  in  a 
while  he  threatens  to  knock  a  man  down,  and  for 
several  hours  thereafter  he  is  very  proud  of  him- 
self. Fortunately  this  type  is  getting  scarce — he 
is  a  relic  of  the  dark  ages. 

The  "Pass-the-Buck"  Foreman. — There  is  the 
foreman  who  is  always  defending  himself.  When 
his  attention  is  called  to  a  mistake  he  explains 
at  length  and  proves  conclusively  that  it  was  not 
his  fault;  he  is  always  afraid  that  he  will  get  the 
blame  for  the  mistakes  of  some  one  else.  He  is 
so  busy  defending  himself  that  he  never  has  a 
chance  to  tackle  his  real  job. 


Section  IV 
Types  of  Foremen  Who  Succeed 

The  All-Round  Foreman. — No  two  foremen 
will  do  their  work  in  exactly  the  same  way,  but 
the  old-fashioned  hit-or-miss  way  of  doing  things 
is  being  cast  aside.  It  is  not  good  enough  for  the 
modern  foreman,  who  is  reaching  out  for  better 
methods  of  getting  work  done — methods  which 
are  just  as  effective  and  as  up  to  date  as  the  latest 
machine  tool  on  the  market.  This  man  is  making 
production  his  sole  aim  and  he  is  driving  toward 
that  aim  with  a  singleness  of  purpose  which  as- 
sures success.  In  organizations  pervaded  with  the 
attitude  of  "every  fellow  for  himself,"  where 
there  is  a  diffusion  of  resources  and  energies,  he  is 


Types  of  Foremen  Who  Succeed  21 

making  steady  progress  toward  his  goal;  and  be- 
cause that  is  not  a  selfish  aim  but  in  line  with  the 
needs  of  the  public  as  well  as  the  company,  his 
reward  is  bound  to  come  and  to  be  lasting. 

This  up-to-date  foreman  assigns  clear-cut  jobs 
to  all  those  under  his  control;  he  sees  that  the  re- 
sponsibility of  each  individual  is  clearly  under- 
stood, that  is,  that  each  one  knows  to  whom  he  is 
responsible  and  the  work  for  which  he  will  be  held 
accountable.  He  sees  that  there  are  no  vague 
or  divided  responsibilities  and  that  each  one  is 
given  the  authority  necessary  to  match  his  respon- 
sibility. He  has  found  lack  of  action  and  its  at- 
tendant idleness  greater  hindrances  to  production 
than  mistaken  decisions,  and  that  the  elimination 
of  idleness  is  more  effective  in  increasing  produc- 
tion than  the  speeding  up  of  either  men  or  ma- 
chines. He  therefore  concentrates  his  efforts  on 
fixing  responsibility  and  on  getting  those  working 
with  him  to  understand  that  "the  authority  to 
issue  an  order  involves  the  responsibility  of  seeing 
that  it  is  executed." 

There  is  the  foreman  who  does  not  want  his 
men  to  run  to  him  with  every  little  thing;  so,  when 
they  come  to  him,  he  asks  them  what  they  would 
do  if  they  were  in  his  place.  If  their  answers  do 
not  agree  with  his  ideas,  he  tells  them  why.  This, 
of  course,  encourages  men  to  act  on  their  own 
initiative  and  develops  their  judgment. 

There  is  the  foreman  who  believes  that  all  of 
his  men  have  brains,  and  whenever  he  tells  them 
how  to  do  a  job  he  tells  them  why  it  should  be 


) 


( 


22  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

done  that  way.  He  knows  that  he  cannot  be  right 
there  every  minute,  and  that  a  number  of  little 
things  will  come  up  which  the  man  can  decide 
himself  if  he  knows  just  what  the  foreman  is  aim- 
ing at.  This  develops  judgment  in  all  of  his  sub- 
ordinates. 

The  "Square  Deal"  Foreman. — There  is  an- 
other type  of  good  foreman  who  is  very  careful  in 
the  way  he  handles  mistakes  of  any  kind.  When 
something  has  gone  wrong,  he  thinks  over  the  situ- 
ation carefully  in  an  attempt  to  find  out  the  reason 
for  the  mistake  and  to  get  some  good  out  of  it. 
He  realizes  that  he  can  make  a  great  improve- 
ment in  his  work  by  the  way  he  handles  mistakes. 
He  finds  out  whether  the  man  who  made  the  mis- 
take has  been  given  clear  and  complete  instructions 
which  he  could  be  expected  to  understand.  If  not, 
he  knows  that  it  is  not  fair  to  blame  that  man. 
When  he  has  determined  the  reason  for  the  mis- 
take he  decides  whether  it  was  due  to  carelessness, 
to  wrong  method,  to  mistaken  judgment,  or  to 
some  other  cause.  If  due  to  carelessness  or  mis- 
taken judgment,  he  devotes  more  time  to  training 
that  particular  workman.  He  does  not  take  the 
easy  way  out  and  designate  some  one  else  to  check 
the  workman  up,  but  trains  him  to  do  it  right. 

Whenever  a  mistake  is  made,  this  foreman  calls 
it  to  the  attention  of  the  one  who  made  it,  but 
does  not  "rub  it  in."  He  is  more  interested  in 
avoiding  it  in  future  than  in  scolding  the  man. 

There  is  the  foreman  who  lays  all  the  cards  on 
the  table  in  dealing  with  his  men,  with  other  fore- 


Types  of  Foremen  Who  Succeed  23 

men,  or  with  his  superintendent.  He  does  not  in- 
dulge in  personalities,  but  takes  it  for  granted  that 
everyone  else  wants  to  decide  the  matter  on  a  basis 
of  fact  instead  of  opinion.  He  does  not  complain 
to  the  superintendent  about  the  shortcomings  of 
another  foreman  until  he  has  talked  the  matter 
over  frankly  with  that  foreman,  and  then,  if  they 
do  not  agree,  he  gets  the  other  foreman  to  go  with 
him  to  the  superintendent  for  a  decision.  This 
man  usually  gets  the  decision  in  any  argument  be- 
cause he  does  not  start  anything  until  he  is  sure  of 
his  facts.  His  frankness  then  usually  disarms 
anyone  who  is  less  frank. 

The  Dependable  Foreman. — There  is  the  fore- 
man who  gets  things  done  when  he  says  he  will. 
It  is  not  easy  to  get  him  to  make  a  promise  ex- 
cept when  he  has  the  material  right  in  his  shop; 
but  when  he  does  make  a  promise,  the  superin- 
tendent has  learned  that  he  can  depend  on  it. 

There  is  a  rare  type  of  man  who  realizes  that, 
when  he  is  given  authority  over  a  department,  he 
has  to  shoulder  responsibility  for  the  actions  of 
all  his  subordinates.  He  is  careful  not  to  issue 
any  orders  that  he  does  not  expect  carried  out  to 
the  letter,  but  when  he  does  issue  an  order  he 
states  it  with  the  full  expectation  that  it  will  be 
carried  out  and  he  usually  mentions  the  time  when 
it  is  to  be  done.  When  that  time  comes  and  the 
work  is  not  done,  he  finds  out  the  reason  why.  It 
is  not  very  long  before  everyone  around  him  finds 
out  that  he  means  what  he  says,  even  if  he  does 
not  make  very  much  noise  about  it. 


24  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

The  Open-Minded  Foreman. — There  is  the 
foreman  who  gives  careful  consideration  to  all 
suggestions  made  by  his  workmen.  If  the  sug- 
gestion is  good,  he  adopts  it;  if  not,  he  tells  the 
person  who  made  it  why  he  is  not  adopting  it. 
He  does  this  promptly  and  frankly,  even  if  some- 
times it  is  hard  work,  because  he  wishes  his  work- 
men to  make  suggestions  since  he  knows  that  it 
will  improve  the  work  of  the  department  and  in- 
crease the  interest  of  his  men. 

The  Foreman  Who  Truly  Serves. — There  is 
another  foreman  who  believes  that  he  is  there  to 
render  service.  He  gives  the  superintendent  the 
best  service  that  his  department  can  render,  and 
gives  his  men  all  the  help  possible.  His  whole 
idea  seems  to  be  to  give  instead  of  to  get;  and, 
of  course,  the  more  help  he  gives  other  people  the 
more  he  is  able  to  give  them  and  the  more  they 
give  him. 

The  responsibilities  being  placed  upon  the  fore- 
man's shoulders  are  heavier  than  ever  before, 
but  there  is  a  new  type  of  foreman  arising  who  is 
stronger  and  better  able  to  shoulder  the  burden. 
More  encouraging  even  than  that  is  the  fact  that 
so  many  thousands  who  have  been  foremen  for 
years  are  showing  that  they  are  able  to  carry  this 
added  load.  These  men  are  reaching  out  for 
knowledge,  visiting  plants  where  up-to-date 
methods  are  in  use,  going  to  night  schools,  and 
even  taking  courses  in  colleges  to  get  more  knowl- 
edge on  technical  subjects  and  business  methods. 


Part  II:    The  Foreman 

THE  FOREMAN  AND  MANAGEMENT 

Section  I 
The  Foreman  and  the  Workers 

Where  You  Stand  as  a  Foreman. — When  I 
was  some  years  younger,  several  of  us  who  were 
living  together  joined  the  militia.  Out  of  the  six 
of  us,  four  remained  privates  and,  of  the  other 
two,  one  became  a  corporal  and  the  other  a  ser- 
geant. As  you  can  imagine,  the  four  who  re- 
mained privates  were  constantly  getting  up  jokes 
at  the  expense  of  the  others,  when  we  were  out 
of  uniform;  also,  we  insisted  that  they  were  lucky, 
and  just  got  these  positions  by  chance,  and  that  we 
didn't  want  to  be  more  than  privates  anyhow. 

One  evening,  after  drill  was  over  and  we  sat 
smoking  in  our  rooms,  the  man  who  had  been 
made  sergeant  let  go.  He  gave  us  a  real  lecture, 
which  was  sufficiently  good  to  live  in  my  memory 
today.  It  caught  us  by  surprise,  for  he  was  a  quiet 
chap,  not  much  on  conversation,  but  a  very  good 
leader.  We  liked  him  in  and  out  of  uniform  and 
we  did  not  suppose  he  had  given  any  study  to  the 
things  he  spilled — until  he  spoke. 

"It's  pretty  tough,  you  fellows,  to  have  a  job 
of  this  kind,"  he  said.  "I'm  supposed  to  know 
enough  to  see  that  you  fellows  know  your  duty. 
I'm  supposed  to  be  able  to  keep  discipline  among 
you.     Yet  you  fellows  know  well  enough  I'm  no 


26  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

more  intelligent  than  you  are  and  I  don't  know  so 
much  more  about  military  affairs.  If  I  pretended 
to,  you'd  give  me  the  horse-laugh.  About  all  the 
discipline  I'll  ever  be  able  to  get  in  our  company 
and  my  squad  will  be  the  discipline  you  privates 
will  let  me  exercise,  out  of  good  will  and  a  feeling 
that  I'm  square  with  you. 

"Now  the  captain  is  a  little  further  away  from 
you.  You  are  pretty  sure  he  knows  a  lot  and  you 
pay  attention  to  what  he  says,  but  most  of  your 
orders  come  to  you  through  me,  and  I've  got  to 
see  that  they  are  finally  carried  out.  So  I've  got 
to  play  square  with  you  and  with  my  superior 
officers  and  I  guess  I  can  do  that  only  by  playing 
square  with  the  army.  Whatever  is  the  right 
thing  for  the  army  is  right  for  us,  and  we'll  be 
square  with  each  other  on  that  basis." 

That  is  about  where  you  stand  as  a  foreman. 
Whether  you  are  foreman  of  a  gang  of  unskilled 
laborers  on  the  railroad,  or  of  skilled  mechanics 
or  of  any  other  workers,  you  are  far  closer  to  them 
than  the  other  supervisors.  Most  of  the  instruc- 
tions must  come  through  you;  a  large  part  of  the 
development  of  the  workers  must  come  through 
you,  and  you  must  see  that  the  work  is  carried  out 
in  an  orderly  and  efficient  manner.  You  are  not 
a  military  leader  with  powrer  like  that  of  the  ser- 
geant I  have  mentioned;  but  you  are  a  leader  of 
your  group  of  men  and  you  are  close  enough  to 
them  to  get  willing  service  out  of  them  if  you  go 
at  it  right. 


The  Foreman  and  the  Workers  27 

The  Foreman  Represents  Skill  and  Authority. 
You  are  in  a  position  to  understand  the  worker's 
needs  and  the  way  in  which  he  fits  into  his  work 
and  into  his  group.  You  are  in  a  position  to 
interpret  the  orders  so  that  he  can  understand 
them.  You  can  explain  the  rules,  the  necessity  for 
accuracy,  the  reason  for  some  of  the  red  tape,  and 
the  object  of  the  work.  Yours  is  an  important 
part  of  the  chain  of  supervision.  You  are  so  close 
to  the  workers  that  you  must  needs  deal  fairly 
with  them  if  you  expect  to  retain  discipline.  And 
you  are  so  necessary  to  the  final  work  of  "doing 
the  job"  in  an  orderly  manner  that  your  obliga- 
tion to  the  management  is  very  vital  and  very 
definite. 

Your  job  demands  the  possession  of  certain 
definite  skill  in  the  work  which  the  men  in  your 
group  are  doing.  The  main  reason  why  you  were 
made  a  foreman  was  because  you  had  shown  some 
greater  skill  in  doing  the  work  than  the  rest  of  the 
men.  One  reason  why  the  men  are  likely  to  re- 
spect you  is  because  they  know  "you  know  what 
you  are  talking  about" ;  but  this  is  not  enough. 
These  are  men  whom  you  have  been  appointed 
to  supervise  and,  as  men,  they  give  their  respect 
to  the  man  who  is  not  only  more  skillful  than  they 
are  but  more  on-the-square,  more  intelligent,  and 
more  capable. 

Your  job  of  foremanship  is  a  big  one.  To 
the  group  of  men,  you  represent  the  company,  the 
work,  and  the  establishment.  You  represent 
authority  in  industry  and  a  great  part  of  their 


28  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

feeling  about  these  matters  comes  from  what  you 
say  and  do  about  them.  Every  man  who  is  more 
skillful  than  his  fellows  exercises  an  influence  over 
them  and  is  able  to  swing  their  ideas  as  well  as 
their  admiration.  In  other  words,  every  man  who 
is  called  to  supervise  others  because  he  is  more 
skillful,  more  intelligent,  or  more  tactful  is  edu- 
cating the  men  he  has  charge  of  every  day.  He 
is  influencing  them  for  the  better — better  work, 
better  thought,  better  play — or  for  the  worse  in 
the  same  way. 

The  Workers  Considered  as  a  Group. — A  little 
later  in  this  course  we  will  consider  the  worker  as 
a  man,  and  his  relations  to  others  as  an  individual. 
Just  now  it  is  necessary  to  look  at  that  group  of 
workers  which  you  are  called  upon  to  supervise. 

Physically,  they  differ  amazingly.  Some  are 
short  and  slender,  others  heavy  and  tall,  others 
medium.  There  are  the  dark  and  the  light;  the 
ones  who  show  deep,  lively  eyes  and  the  ones  who 
seem  to  wake  up  slowly.  They  walk  differently, 
they  have  different  homes,  their  work  is  tackled 
in  different  ways.  They  do  not  have  the  same 
opinions.  Some  are  important,  some  cool  and 
keen,  some  will  take  advantage  of  anything,  and 
some  will  refuse  to  get  the  better  of  anybody. 

They  agree  on  many  matters,  but  disagree  on 
many  others  and  in  the  way  they  see,  or  think 
about,  things.  They  agree  enough  about  their 
work  to  get  along  as  a  group,  although  they 
threaten  to  "bust  up"  the  group  if  they  get  in- 
volved too  deeply  in  personal  differences.    Think- 


The  Foreman  and  the  Workers  29 

ing  them  over,  you  will  agree  that  they  all  have 
their  good  points  and  there  are  ways  in  which  you 
like  them.  If  anyone  asked  you  whom  you  liked 
best  you  might  be  ready  to  mention  Landers  or 
Maginnes  or  Carter  or  Pitovski ;  but  just  then  you 
would  remember  Tony  or  Jim  or  some  one  else, 
and  you  would  pause  wondering  whom  you  ap- 
proved of  most. 

Now,  these  fellows  assemble  under  your  super- 
vision, and  perhaps  you  think  that  you  don't  have 
anything  to  do  with  their  personal  agreements  or 
differences.  You  know  better  than  that.  You  are 
too  close  to  the  work  and  too  close  to  its  necessi- 
ties to  imagine  that  any  man  can  work  as  well  if 
he  is  "mad"  at  another  man,  or  thinks  some  one 
didn't  treat  him  fairly,  or  faces  any  of  those  other 
human  difficulties  which  stir  up  the  mind.  You 
know  well  that  a  man  doesn't  do  his  best  work  for 
a  boss  he  isn't  interested  in  and  doesn't  know  any- 
thing about.  So  you  are  really  concerned  with 
this  group  of  workers  as  men  and  consequently  as 
individuals,  because  everything  they  think  affects 
the  kind  and  amount  of  work  they  do  during  the 
day  when  you  are  supervising  them. 

Know  What  Your  Men  Think. — Probably 
there  is  no  man  in  the  whole  establishment  who 
has  occasion  to  know,  as  well  as  you  do,  the  way 
in  which  the  "job"  is  affected  by  the  thinking  the 
workman  does  and  the  way  he  feels  about  things. 

Now  the  job  of  being  a  foreman  is  concerned 
with  getting  the  best  work  out  of  the  group  of 
workers  under  the  foreman's  supervision,  by  guid- 


30  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

ance,  by  care,  and  by  keeping  the  group  working 
together  as  a  group.  This  means  that  the  way  in 
which  every  man  in  the  group  thinks  about  his 
work  is  something  which  concerns  the  foreman. 
He  wants  the  men  to  think  right  about  him  and 
about  each  other;  he  wants  them  to  think  right 
about  the  company  and  the  management,  and  he 
also  wants  them  to  think  right  about  the  work 
which  they  have  to  do. 

It  is  up  to  the  foreman  to  know  how  to  influence 
the  thinking  of  his  men.  Doing  this — keeping 
these  men  feeling  and  thinking  right — means 
knowing  them  as  individuals — the  long  and  the 
short,  the  fiery  and  the  calm,  the  grouch  and  the 
pleasant  one.  It  means  knowing  how  to  make  the 
long  and  the  short  men  feel  like  twin  brothers  on 
the  job,  how  to  bring  a  smile  to  the  grouch,  and 
how  to  keep  the  redhead  from  getting  "mad." 

Broad  Knowledge  Is  Necessary. — Keeping  the 
workmen  feeling  right  about  the  company  and 
the  management  means  knowing  enough  about  the 
company  and  its  policy  so  that  it  can  be  explained 
clearly.  All  the  red  tape  of  inspection  and  rejec- 
tion of  work,  the  stock  room  requirements,  the 
intricacies  of  the  time  sheets  and  studies  is 
charged  up  to  the  management  unless  it  is  ex- 
plained to  the  men  and  its  usefulness  is  under- 
stood. All  the  apparent  waste — and  there  is 
apparently  a  lot  of  it  even  in  the  best  shop — will 
be  counted  as  inefficiency  unless  the  reason  is 
understood  and  explained.  Because  the  foreman 
is  the  first  line  of  supervision,  he  is  close  enough 


The  Foreman  as  Interpreter  31 

to  the  men  to  be  able  to  deal  with  these  matters 
and  see  that  the  group  works  harmoniously,  thinks 
well  of  the  company  and  the  management,  and 
puts  its  interest  in  the  work. 

The  men,  however,  must  not  only  understand 
and  feel  right  about  each  other,  the  company,  and 
the  management,  but  they  must  also  know  the  use- 
fulness of  their  work  and  its  importance,  and  feel 
right  about  that.  Unless  they  are  interested  in 
their  work,  they  will  not  do  a  good  job  at  the  best 
speed.  They  will  allow  their  power  to  be  idle 
and  do  only  as  much  as  is  necessary  to  get  through 
the  day.  Their  work,  its  purpose,  its  necessity, 
and  its  value  must  be  understood.  The  foreman 
is  in  the  position  where  he  can  give  them  this  in- 
formation and  see  that  it  is  understood.  The 
foreman  is  not  supervising  a  job  done  by  a  group 
of  workers;  he  is  supervising  a  group  of  men  or  ^^ 
women  gathered  together  to  work  at  and  accom-  / 
plish  a  job.  The  workers  come  first.  The  job 
grows  out  of  the  workers,  and  it  is  done  well  or 
ill  according  to  their  ideas  and  thoughts.  The 
foreman  who  knows  most  is  best  capable  of  guid- 
ing and  teaching  his  men. 

Section  II 
The  Foreman  as  Interpreter 

The  Necessity  for  Interpreting. — When  I  was 
in  the  contracting  business,  years  ago,  most  of 
the  unskilled  labor  we  used  was  Italian  and,  in  a 
great  many  instances,  the  men  could  not  speak 
English.     It  was  necessary  for  us  to  have  a  man 


32  The  Foreman  and  His  J  oh 

with  each  group  who  could  speak  both  English  and 
Italian.  Some  of  these  men  were  able  to  speak 
the  English  language  but  brokenly,  and  the  mis- 
understandings which  arose  as  to  the  orders  for 
the  work,  on  various  occasions,  wrere  very  amusing 
and  at  times  very  disastrous. 

From  time  to  time  I  have  stood  in  court  and 
watched  the  cases  come  up  for  consideration 
where  the  parties  could  not  speak  English,  and 
have  wondered  how  much  of  the  value  of  the 
questions  was  lost  in  the  passage  of  the  message 
through  the  interpreter.  Particularly,  I  have 
wondered  how  much  of  the  warning  of  the  judge 
was  changed  to  threat,  or  of  the  kindly  admoni- 
tion to  peremptory  order,  because  of  the  difficulty 
of  transferring  the  personal  application  in  the  in- 
terpreting of  the  words. 

People  who  speak  the  same  language  can  be  as 
far  away  from  understanding  one  another  as 
though  they  spoke  a  different  language.  The  real 
master  of  a  science  is  the  man  who  can  develop  the 
discoveries  in  scientific  exactness  and  explain  these 
matters  so  that  children  can  understand  them. 

Nearly  always  it  is  necessary  to  have  some  dis- 
cussion, some  interpretation,  in  order  that  all  the 
men  in  a  group  may  understand  a  matter  thor- 
oughly. Orders  are  easy  to  obey  if  you  under- 
stand their  reason.  Systems,  records,  red  tape  of 
all  kinds  become  useful  binders,  holding  the  parts 
of  a  business  together,  when  the  reasons  for  their 
use  are  known.  Inspections,  time  studies,  bonuses, 
and  other  matters  of  routine  necessity  are  shown 


The  Foreman  as  Interpreter  33 

to  be  valuable  to  the  worker  for  his  protection  and 
benefit — as  well  as  valuable  to  the  company — 
when  they  are  thoroughly  understood. 

Interpreting,  then,  is  quite  an  important  part 
of  the  job  of  supervision.  Telling  the  men  about 
the  things  they  have  to  do — their  importance,  their 
reason,  and  their  purpose — is  a  great  part  of  the 
matter. 

Understanding  Must  Precede  Interpreting. — 
You  cannot  make  a  matter  simple  unless  you 
understand  it.  In  fact,  it  takes  a  much  larger 
measure  of  understanding  to  put  a  thing  into  sim- 
ple terms  than  it  does  to  repeat  the  terms  used 
by  those  who  are  familiar  with  it.  If  you  want 
to  find  this  out  thoroughly,  try  to  explain  to  a  nine- 
year-old  boy  the  action  of  a  machine  or  an  engine, 
and  see  how  far  you  can  get  without  talking  about 
pistons  and  cylinders  and  gears — words  which  are 
technical  and  not  within  the  boy's  comprehension. 

There  are  a  lot  of  things  connected  with  the 
system  of  any  production  or  distribution  job  which 
are  not  a  part  of  the  necessary  knowledge  of  the 
worker.  They  may  know  Form  101-A  as  the  in- 
dividual job  record,  but  why  it  is  called  that  and 
what  it  does  they  have  no  idea.  A  little  girl  who 
knows  there  are  cylinders  in  a  motor  car,  and  can 
point  them  out  to  you,  may  have  no  idea  of  what 
they  do  and  why  they  are  shaped  as  they  are. 

It  is  up  to  the  foreman  to  know  why  things  are 
as  they  are  and  to  understand  them  so  well  that 
he  can  tell  about  them  in  words  that  the  workers 
will  understand.     But,  if  you  want  to  interpret 


34  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

something  or  make  the  other  man  understand  it, 
you  must  know  more  than  the  thing  you  want  to 
talk  about.  You  must  know  whom  you  are  talk- 
ing to,  what  they  think,  and  how  they  speak. 

Not  long  ago  I  heard  a  man  speak  to  a  group 
of  engineers  on  finance.  He  knew  his  subject  and 
what  he  said  was  sound  and  well  thought  out;  but 
the  people  were  not  interested.  It  was  with  diffi- 
culty that  they  kept  their  seats  and  suppressed 
their  yawns.  He  knew  what  he  was  talking  about, 
but  he  did  not  know  the  men  he  was  addressing 
and  how  they  thought  and  spoke.  He  did  not 
speak  within  their  understanding. 

It  is  a  big  part  of  the  job  of  a  foreman  to  know 
his  men — to  know  what  they  think  and  how  they 
speak.  Only  in  this  way  can  the  matter  in  which 
he  is  interested  be  brought  to  their  attention  so 
that  they  will  be  interested  and  know  the  "reason 
why"  of  the  thing. 

Make  Your  Interpretation  Clear  to  the  Work- 
man. — One  day,  recently,  two  of  my  younger 
children  were  arguing  about  something  and,  hear- 
ing the  high-pitched  voices  saying  "  'Tis  so!" 
"  'Tis  not!",  I  inquired  about  the  matter  under 
discussion.  One  of  them  immediately  got  me 
into  the  discussion  by  inquiring,  "Daddy,  doesn't 
it  say  'My  country  'tis  of  thee,  Sweet  lamb  of 
liberty'?"  Of  course  I  corrected  the  youngster 
and  then  explained  the  song.  He  was  incorrect 
because  he  did  not  understand  what  was  meant. 
The  words  were  just  pleasant  sounds  to  him  and 


The  Foreman  as  Interpreter  35 

he  repeated  the  sounds  without  knowing  whether 
they  were  right  or  wrong. 

Not  very  long  ago  I  was  in  a  factory  where 
they  make  small  machines.  I  stopped  by  the 
machine  of  an  operator  who  was  punching  out  a 
lot  of  small  plates.  After  awhile  I  asked  him 
what  they  were.     He  said,  "P.X.  111." 

"You  misunderstood  my  question,"  I  replied. 
"What  are  they  used  for?" 

"Oh,"  he  said,  "I  don't  know  anything  about 
that." 

I  suppose  P.X.  Ill  was  the  job  number  of  the 
work  he  was  on,  but  he  did  not  understand  the 
purpose  of  the  work  and  consequently  he  could 
not  understand  the  value  of  the  work  he  was 
doing.  Somebody  had  failed  to  interpret  the  job 
to  this  man  so,  because  of  his  ignorance,  he  took 
no  interest  in  the  article  he  was  making. 

You  may  know  the  workers  you  are  working 
with  and  supervising  and  you  may  know  the  things 
you  are  dealing  with,  but  unless  you  see  clearly 
and  thoroughly  all  the  matters  connected  with 
the  job  and  can  be  sure  that  the  men  understand 
them,  the  fact  that  you  know  about  them  will 
not  aid  the  men  or  keep  their  interest. 

Most  of  us  know  something  about  a  lot  of 
things,  without  knowing  all  about  them.  We  know 
the  system  of  doing  things,  but  the  reasons  for  do- 
ing them  are  not  so  clear.  Many  things,  which  we 
thought  we  understood,  become  very  difficult  to 
deal  with  when  we  are  called  upon  to  explain  them 
to  some  one  else ;  so  we  are  a  little  inclined  to  let 


36  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

the  explanations  go,  or  cut  them  short,  or  say 
that  the  company  wants  it  done  that  way.  It  is 
not  an  easy  matter  to  explain  things  so  that  an- 
other person  can  understand  them  thoroughly, 
anyway;  and  when  the  person  is  not  familiar  with 
the  things  by  previous  experience  the  matter  of 
explanation  becomes  more  difficult. 

Interest  Is  Aroused  through  Understanding. — 
Men  are  interested  in  things  when  they  under- 
stand them;  they  lose  their  suspicions  of  many 
things  when  they  get  the  reasons  for  them.  If 
they  do  not  understand  the  routine  of  the  job 
sheet,  the  inspection,  the  time  study,  and  other 
matters  connected  with  the  system,  much  of  it 
will  look  foolish  to  them  and  will  seem  like  an 
unnecessary  irritation.  Many  grievances  arise 
from  small  misunderstandings;  and  misunder- 
standings are  always  due  to  the  lack  of  good  inter- 
pretation and  a  good  interpreter.  No  man  is  so 
hopeless  that  he  cannot  be  made  to  understand 
the  reasons  for  the  practical  things  which  are  con- 
nected with  his  work,  and  no  man  is  so  unintelli- 
gent that  he  cannot  become  ambitious  to  do  good 
work.  There  are  a  great  many  men  who  realize 
that  they  cannot  become  stars  and  acquire  the 
speed  and  precision  of  the  leaders;  but  they  like 
to  do  a  good  job  with  speed  and  accuracy,  and 
they  will  do  it  if  they  can  be  kept  interested. 

You  can  see  the  same  thing  in  sports.  Many 
men  who  play  tennis  or  baseball  know  they  cannot 
become  champions,  so  they  are  not  fired  with  any 
increased  ambition  by  the  playing  which  is  accom- 


The  Foreman  as  Subordinate  37 

plished  by  the  champions.  They  may  look  with 
admiration  upon  these  heroes  of  sport,  but  they 
do  not  expect  to  follow  their  example  and  they 
don't  try.  They  do  want  to  play  as  well  as  the 
other  fellows  in  their  class  and  they  hate  to  be  no 
good  at  the  game.  Work,  when  you  are  interested 
in  it,  is  like  a  game.  Very  few  of  us  can  be  cham- 
pions and  we  know  it,  so  we  don't  try  very  hard 
to  become  champions;  but  we  do  want  to  hold  our 
own  among  our  fellows,  at  work  as  at  play,  and 
we  will  do  it  as  long  as  we  are  interested  in  the 
matter. 

Our  interest,  however,  depends  very  largely 
upon  our  knowledge  and  understanding  of  the 
work,  the  rules  of  the  game,  and  the  results.  We 
want  to  know  what  we  are  doing,  why  we  are  do- 
ing it,  and  why  we  have  so  many  rules  to  follow. 
Interpreting  all  these  things  to  the  group  of  work- 
ers under  your  supervision  is  a  big,  important  part 
of  the  job  of  foreman;  and  seeing  that  they  under- 
stand the  interpretation  is  just  as  important. 

Section  III 
The  Foreman  as  Subordinate 

What  Is  a  Subordinate? — When  I  first  went 
to  work  in  a  shop  as  a  youngster,  I  used  to  think 
about  the  long  line  of  steps  from  sub-foreman,  to 
foreman,  shop  foreman,  general  foreman,  super- 
intendent, works  manager,  general  manager,  and 
so  forth.  That  line  looked  like  a  very  long 
stretch  and  the  vision  was  somewhat  discouraging. 


38  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

As  1  looked  into  the  matter  further  I  discovered 
that  each  of  these  men  was  both  an  officer  and 
a  subordinate,  taking  his  authority  from  some 
superior  supervisor  and  delegating  part  of  that 
authority  to  another  subordinate  who  in  turn  acted 
as  a  supervisor.  As  I  became  acquainted  with 
the  workings  of  a  factory,  from  my  experiences  I 
found  out  that  all  these  supervisors  had  limita- 
tions to  their  authority  and  also  obligations  of 
service  to  some  one  else  whom  they  represented. 
Even  the  president  of  the  company  was  limited 
to  certain  things  by  the  directors  elected  by  the 
stockholders,  and  he  was  bound  by  his  obligations 
to  them,  to  the  customers,  and  to  the  organization. 

A  great  many  men  are  under  the  impression 
that  the  word  "subordinate"  means  blind  obedi- 
ence to  somebody  above  us  and  a  lack  of  freedom 
in  judgment;  but  that  is  not  the  case.  It  means, 
roughly,  throwing  away  your  own  desires  in  order 
that  you  may  do  your  duty  to  the  organization. 
It  means  nothing  more  than  fulfilling  your  obli- 
gations whether  they  fit  into  your  desires  or  not. 

The  Men  at  the  Top  Are  Subordinates. — I 
have  a  friend  who  is  a  director  of  two  or  three 
concerns  and  the  president  of  two.  His  life  is 
full  of  meetings.  He  is  obliged  to  take  a  vacation 
at  the  end  of  a  telephone.  He  must  be  away  from 
his  family  night  after  night  because  of  this  or 
that  business  necessity.  His  obligations  are  so 
many  that  he  cannot  be  sure  of  any  free  time.  He 
is  a  subordinate;  he  must  answer  the  demands  of 
the  different  companies  with  which  he  is  connected. 


The  Foreman  as  Subordinate  39 

He  must  put  aside  his  own  affairs  to  meet  com- 
mittees and  to  talk  with  labor  leaders  and  work- 
ers ;  he  must  consider  his  community.  So,  he  must 
be  continually  subordinating  himself  to  the  obliga- 
tions for  service  which  come  out  of  his  capacity 
and  his  responsibilities.  He  does  not  have  one 
boss,  and  it  is  true  that  he  does  not  have  to  stay 
in  a  certain  place  for  a  certain  number  of  hours; 
but  he  has  many  bosses,  and  his  hours  are  so  un- 
certain that  he  is  quite  likely  to  lose  his  evenings, 
his  Sundays,  or  his  vacation. 

A  subordinate  is  the  man,  who,  recognizing  the 
fact  that  he  is  obligated  to  carry  out  the  policy 
of  the  organization,  understands  that  policy  and 
obeys  it  intelligently  and  with  judgment,  not 
blindly  and  ignorantly.  The  President  of  the 
United  States  is  a  subordinate,  with  so  much  work 
and  so  many  obligations  to  so  many  people  that 
he  must  be  prepared  to  give  twenty-four  hours  a 
day,  if  need  be,  to  that  service,  intelligently  and 
without  question.  He  must  use  his  judgment  and 
intelligence,  not  to  change,  but  to  carry  out  the 
wishes  of  the  government — that  is,  the  people, 
as  expressed  by  their  constitution  and  their  laws. 

If  we  substitute  the  factory  for  the  government, 
the  systems  and  methods  of  the  factory  for  the 
constitution  and  the  laws,  the  personnel  of  the 
factory  organization  for  the  government  employes 
from  the  President  down,  then  it  will  be  clear 
that  every  supervisor  is  also  a  subordinate.  He 
is  a  subordinate,  subordinating  himself  to  the 
policy  of  the  plant,   to   its   organization,    to   its 


40  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

system,  and  to  its  methods  in  order  to  carry  out  his 
part  of  the  work  of  putting  these  things  into  prac- 
tical effect,  without  respect  to  his  own  personal 
opinion  about  them.  That  means,  of  course, 
understanding  the  methods  and  the  systems, 
understanding  their  reasons  and  why  they  exist, 
so  that  they  can  be  applied  intelligently  and  with 
judgment.  This  is  particularly  true  of  the  factory 
supervisors  and  especially  of  the  foreman,  who  is 
so  close  to  the  group  of  workers. 

Fair-Minded  Subordinates  Play  with  the  Team. 
The  subordinate  is  the  man  who  cuts  out  indi- 
vidual play  for  the  good  of  the  team;  who  will 
make  a  sacrifice  hit,  if  it  is  necessary,  so  that  the 
team  can  score.  He  is  the  man  who  will  obey 
the  coach,  not  because  he  may  always  agree  with 
the  coach,  but  because  the  coach  is  charged  with 
responsibility  for  the  team;  and  every  man  on  the 
team  has  to  do  his  best  to  help  him  with  that  re- 
sponsibility. I  have  never  been  able  to  understand 
why  we  should  look  upon  the  subordinate  position 
as  an  inferior  part  that  a  man  plays.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  it  is  the  greater  part,  because  it  requires 
more  vision  and  intelligence  to  subordinate  one's 
self  for  the  good  of  the  organization  than  it  does 
to  make  the  individual  play.  It  is  probably  for 
that  reason  that  the  wise  leaders  of  industry  have 
said  many  times  that  only  the  good  subordinate 
makes  a  good  supervisor.  No  man  who  cannot 
subordinate  himself  for  the  good  of  the  organiza- 
tion can  expect  to  teach  a  group  of  men  under  him 
how  to  do  that  very  thing. 


The  Foreman  as  Subordinate  41 

The  Foreman  as  an  Officer. — The  foreman 
as  subordinate  is  the  necessary  preliminary  to  a 
good  foreman  as  supervisor,  and  the  foreman's 
place  as  supervisor  is  of  great  importance  in  the 
line  of  management.  The  close  and  intimate  char- 
acter of  his  responsibility  gives  the  foreman  the 
opportunity  to  express  the  spirit  and  character  of 
the  organization  to  the  men,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
to  secure  from  the  men  the  cooperation  and  team 
work  which  result  in  the  increased  efficiency  of  the 
job.  Like  all  jobs  of  management,  the  actual 
necessities  involved  in  the  supervision  are  only  part 
of  the  work.  The  opportunities  for  developing 
the  understanding  existing  between  the  men  and 
the  company,  and  among  the  men  themselves,  con- 
stitute a  very  important  part  of  the  job  and  a  large 
part  of  the  efficiency.  In  all  the  armies  engaged  in 
the  late  war,  we  paid  a  great  deal  of  attention  to 
the  morale  of  the  men,  to  their  health,  to  their 
comfort,  and  to  their  team  work.  In  industry,  we 
have  been  inclined  to  emphasize  the  mechanical 
side  of  the  matter — the  process,  the  materials, 
the  machine — and  in  the  course  of  doing  that,  we 
have  looked  upon  the  man  as  a  part  of  the  ma- 
chinery, so  that  we  have  forgotten,  to  some  extent, 
the  effect  of  his  thinking,  his  desires,  and  his  atti- 
tude toward  his  work  and  upon  the  character  of 
the  work  itself. 

The  foreman  is  an  officer  in  the  sense  in  which 
that  term  is  understood  in  the  best  military  prac- 
tice; a  comrade  of  his  men,  but  a  comrade  of 
superior   attainments   and  consequently  a   leader 


42  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

who  understands  his  men  and  knows  when  they 
need  encouragement,  and  when  they  need  a  little 
discipline,  and  how  much  explanation  will  help  in 
the  accomplishment  of  the  work. 

The  order  will  be  far  better  obeyed  if  the  fore- 
man and  the  men  understand  each  other  and  can 
believe  that  the  order  is  worth  while  even  if  it  is 
not  explained  to  them.  The  work  will  be  done 
still  more  quickly  and  more  accurately,  though, 
if  the  foreman  and  his  group  can  go  at  it  with  a 
common  understanding  of  its  importance  and  its 
necessity. 

A  good  subordinate  and  a  good  officer  come 
out  of  the  same  understanding  of  the  job.  There 
can  be  no  team  work  unless  the  men  believe  in 
the  coach,  the  manager,  and  the  captain,  and  un- 
less they  are  willing  to  take  on  faith  some  of  the 
work  which  they  do.  The  coach,  the  manager, 
and  the  captain  must  be  agreed  as  to  their  responsi- 
bility and  take  each  other  on  faith  where  they  do 
not  understand  the  reason  for  the  methods.  Only 
in  this  way  can  they  get  the  team  spirit  into  every- 
body, so  that  the  team  will  work  coordinately — 
not  like  a  mere  machine,  but  like  a  machine  might 
act  if  each  part  of  it  was  endowed  with  intelligence 
and  enthusiasm.  With  this  kind  of  an  officer,  the 
group  of  workers  will  go  at  the  job  with  a  com- 
bined power  that  is  far  greater  than  the  amount 
of  power  necessary  merely  to  get  by.  They  will 
do  things  with  an  ease  that  is  astonishing  and  they 
will  make  the  work  of  supervision  a  pleasure  in- 
stead of  an  embarrassing  task. 


The  Foreman  as  Instructor  43 

Section  IV 
The  Foreman  as  Instructor 

The  Old-Fashioned  Foreman.  —  My  friend 
John  Smith  was  brought  up  in  an  old-time  cabinet- 
making  shop,  where  they  had  apprentices  in  the 
old  way,  and  where  nearly  all  the  work  was  done 
by  hand,  except  the  turning.  He  is  a  designer  of 
furniture  today,  and  a  very  good  one.  He  is  fond 
of  describing  that  old  shop  and  of  saying  that  he 
got  all  his  education  in  furniture  during  his  ap- 
prenticeship in  it.  Apparently  he  did  not  have 
the  opportunity  of  getting  much  schooling.  A 
little  reading,  a  little  writing,  and  some  arithmetic, 
plus  some  geography  and  history,  were  about  all 
he  received.  All  his  knowledge  of  fine  fitting, 
workmanship,  finishing,  and  decorating  was  se- 
cured from  his  practical  workdays  in  the  cabinet 
maker's  establishment.  The  most  interesting  part 
of  his  reminiscences  is  that  portion  which  refers 
to  the  bespectacled  old  foreman,  his  skill,  his  kind- 
liness, and  his  patience. 

"That  man  knew  his  business,"  my  friend  would 
say.  "He  could  show  any  worker  how  to  fit  a  finer 
concealed  joint,  how  to  carry  through  a  decoration 
in  each  part  of  the  piece.  He  knew  how  to  use 
tools  better  than  anyone  else.  Moreover,  he  was 
so  interested  in  doing  a  good  job  that  he  not  only 
showed  you  how  to  do  it,  but  he  made  you  feel 
proud  of  every  step  you  made  in  advance.  I  be- 
lieve I  owe  most  of  my  skill,  and  my  mental  de- 
velopment as  well,  to  that  foreman.  He  not  only 
taught  me  the  furniture  business,  but  he  taught 


44  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

me  to  do  a  good  job,  to  respect  a  real  job,  and 
to  put  all  my  brains  and  my  skill  into  everything 
I  did.  Nearly  every  man  who  came  out  of  the 
old  cabinet-maker's  shop  is  in  some  important 
position  in  the  furniture  business  today.  That 
old  foreman  did  a  good  job  of  educating  and  in- 
structing all  the  boys  and  they  loved  him  for  it." 

Educating  vs.  Instructing. — It  is  well  worth 
noting  that  my  friend  said  "educating  and  instruct* 
ing."  There  is  some  difference  between  the  two, 
although  they  ought  to  go  together  always.  Edu- 
cation is  making  people  think,  while  instruction  is 
showing  them  how  to  put  that  thinking  to  useful 
purposes. 

That  foreman  was  a  great  man.  He  did  his 
bit  in  the  world  by  turning  a  lot  of  young  appren- 
tices into  practical  business  men  with  a  respect 
for  their  work,  an  honest  love  for  their  work,  and 
a  master  capacity  to  see  it  through. 

The  foreman  is  the  natural  instructor — to  very 
many  workers  he  is  the  only  instructor.  Many 
workmen  have  had  little  schooling  and  much  of 
what  they  had  did  not  stick.  The  foreman  can 
make  a  good  workman  out  of  a  bad  one.  He  can 
create  a  love  for  a  good  job,  an  honest  job,  and 
an  accurate  job  of  work.  To  do  this  effectively 
he  must  continue  the  instruction  work  which  was 
done  by  the  old  foreman  in  the  days  of  general 
apprentices,  and  supplement  it  with  modern  ideas 
and  methods. 

The  necessity  for  the  instruction  of  the  work- 
man has  increased  because  the  work  has  become 


The  Foreman  as  Instructor  45 

so  highly  specialized.  My  friend,  who  learned 
the  business  of  making  furniture  in  the  old  cabinet- 
maker's shop,  had  a  much  better  chance  to  get 
some  education  out  of  his  work  than  the  worker 
of  today  because  he  used  all  the  tools  in  the  place 
and  made  each  part  of  an  entire  piece  of  furniture. 
Yet  he  would  not  have  been  able  to  take  full 
charge  of  completing  the  job  without  the  wise 
instruction  of  the  foreman  and  his  patient  educa- 
tional influences,  born  of  his  pride  in  his  craft,  his 
trade,  his  job,  and  the  accomplishment  of  good 
work. 

Methods  of  Instruction. — The  workman  who 
learned  so  much  from  the  foreman  of  the  cabinet- 
maker's shop  interested  me  greatly  by  his  stories 
on  this  subject.  One  evening,  when  we  were  talk- 
ing about  production  and  manufacturing  subjects, 
I  asked  him  why  he  laid  so  much  emphasis  on  the 
old  foreman's  instruction  and  what  was  the  man's 
system  of  managing  the  matter  which  had  influ- 
enced him  so  much. 

He  smiled  a  little  at  my  request  for  system  as 
he  replied  to  my  question.  "He  didn't  have  any 
real  system  in  his  instruction,"  said  he,  unot  a 
conscious  system,  although  he  formed  the  habit  of 
going  through  things  in  much  the  same  way.  His 
shop  was  not  organized  the  way  we  have  it  now. 
I  imagine  he  could  have  helped  and  influenced  a 
great  many  more  young  workers  if  he  could  have 
had  the  advantages  of  modern  organization  in 
his  work.     But  he  did  have  one  principle  without 


46  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

which  the  system  would  not  be  worth  much,  but 
with  which  one  is  master  of  any  system. 

"He  often  told  us  that  no  good  work  was  ever 
secured  if  the  man  did  not  know  why  the  things 
were  done  that  way  and  appreciate  the  reasons. 
He  always  taught  us  why  the  stroke  of  a  plane 
should  be  just  so  (my  friend  illustrated  this  with 
his  hands,  but,  of  course,  I  can't  give  you  that 
part  of  it),  and  showed  us  the  advantages  of  it. 

"He  explained  why  some  joints  were  concealed 
and  some  were  not.  He  went  further  and  told 
us  why  some  kinds  of  lumber  were  good  for  cer- 
tain furniture  and  others  were  not.  He  discussed 
the  grain  of  the  lumber  and  showed  us  how  each 
had  to  be  worked  differently  to  get  the  best  and 
most  rapid  results.  Similarly,  he  told  us  the  rea- 
sons for  the  routine  of  job  records  and  sheets, 
time  sheets,  and  other  things  which  seem  so  much 
red  tape  to  the  young  workers.  I  don't  believe  he 
ever  gave  me  an  order  without  showing  me  the 
reason  for  it.    He  was  a  true  instructor." 

Merely  Giving  Orders  Is  Not  Instruction. — 
There  are  many  men  who  think  of  instruction  in 
business  as  ordering  others,  but  that  is  not  instruc- 
tion. A  great  many  orders  are  delivered  without 
there  being  any  instruction  with  them  at  all.  Un- 
fortunately, many  of  the  officers  in  the  industrial 
army  do  not  see  the  necessity  for  instruction. 
They  think  that  orders  are  all  the  instruction  any 
worker  needs. 

You  know  better.  You  are  sufficiently  close  to 
the  workers  to  know  how  much  can  be   accom- 


The  Foreman  as  Instructor  47 

plished  by  teaching  them  how  to  keep  the  machines 
in  good  order,  how  to  manage  their  work,  how  to 
rest  themselves  with  a  maximum  of  effect  and  a 
minimum  of  time.  You  know  that  many  of  the 
workers  have  been  pitchforked  into  industry,  or 
their  particular  job  in  industry,  without  any  real 
preparation;  and  you  know  how  little  they  under- 
stand about  the  machines  they  operate  and  the 
work  they  do. 

Because  you  know  these  things  and  the  workers 
know  you,  you  are  in  a  fine  position  to  give  them 
a  better  understanding  of  the  machine  they  wTork 
at,  of  the  tools  they  work  with,  and  of  the  work 
they  are  doing.  You  can  show  them,  bit  by  bit, 
many  things  about  the  machine  or  the  tools  which 
will  be  interesting  and  will  awaken  their  thought. 

Part  of  the  job  of  being  a  foreman  is  to  instruct 
the  man,  not  merely  on  the  orders  for  the  day  or 
the  job,  not  merely  on  the  rules,  but  on  the  tools, 
the  work,  and  the  reasons  for  these  things.  A 
good  workman  remains  the  most  important  prod- 
uct of  civilization.  He  is  likely  to  be  a  good 
citizen,  and  a  good  supervisor  when  he  takes  that 
responsibility.  The  foreman  is  largely  responsi- 
ble for  the  good  workman  in  the  group  under 
him  and,  to  the  same  extent,  for  the  poor  work- 
man. Instruction  is  necessary,  however,  if  the 
poor  workman  is  to  advance,  and  this  instruction 
will  not  only  benefit  the  entire  group,  but  also 
will  increase  the  output  of  well-finished  material. 


48  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Ask  Yourself  These  Questions 
and  Answer  Them 

Don't  be  satisfied  with  merely  THINKING 
you  have  the  right  answer;  be  certain  about  it.  If 
you  are  not  sure  of  your  answer  or  the  subject  is 
hazy,  turn  back  and  read  that  part  carefully. 

1.  Name   the   subject   of   each   chapter   in   this 
book. 

2.  What  are  the  four  factors  which  the  fore- 
man must  combine  in  production? 

3.  What  is  the  first  responsibility  of  the  fore- 
man? 

4.  What  are  some  of  the  problems  which  the 
foreman  must  solve? 

5.  Name  three  types  of  the  inefficient  foreman. 

6.  Name  some  types  of  the  successful  foreman. 

7.  What  does  the  foreman  represent? 

8.  What  is  meant  by  ''interpreting"  ? 

9.  What  must  you  know  in  order  to  interpret  or- 
ders and  policies  to  the  workmen? 

10.  What  is  meant  by  "subordinate"  ? 

11.  In  what  sense  is  the  foreman  an  officer  ? 

12.  What  is  the  foreman's  job  as  educator? 

13.  What  is  the  difference  between  educating  and 
instructing? 

14.  What  is  the  difference  between  giving  orders 
and  instructing? 


Chapter  2 


Part  I 
BASIC  FACTORS  IN  PRODUCTION 


Part  II 
THE  FOREMAN  AND  PRODUCTION 


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rPr  o  ducecl^ 


Part  I:    The  Job 

BASIC   FACTORS   IN  PRODUCTION 

Section  I 
Utilizing  the  Time  of  Labor 

Time  Is  the  Vital  Factor. — Efficient  utiliza- 
tion of  time  is  the  vital  factor  in  industry.  It  is 
the  factor  which  most  deeply  concerns  the  fore- 
man; and  it  also  concerns  the  workman.  If  a 
man  decides  to  improve  himself  intellectually,  he 
must  take  time  to  study.  If  he  wants  to  get  more 
work  done,  he  must  cut  down  the  time  required 
for  each  operation.  The  one  factor  which  is  com- 
mon to  every  kind  of  work  is  time.  If  anything  is 
needed  by  a  consumer,  it  is  needed  at  a  definite 
time.  A  man  needs  coal  when  it  is  cold  enough  to 
have  a  fire  and  his  present  supply  is  used  up.  He 
needs  food  when  he  is  hungry  and  a  new  suit  when 
the  old  one  wears  out. 

Working  back  from  the  time  the  article  is 
needed  by  the  consumer,  we  arrive  at  the  time 
it  is  needed  by  the  distributor — taking  into  con- 
sideration the  necessity  of  keeping  a  certain  stock 
on  hand  at  all  times  and  possible  delays  in  trans- 
portation. Working  back  from  the  time  the  ar- 
ticle is  needed  by  the  distributor,  we  fix  the  time 
when  the  article  should  be  manufactured,  the  time 
when  the  various  parts  must  be  completed,  when 
material  must  be  received,  and  so  on  back  to  the 
securing  of  the  raw  material. 


52  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Time  runs  through  every  phase  of  industry  like 
the  string  through  rock  candy. 

Since  the  foreman  has  such  an  important  place 
in  industry  it  is  particularly  necessary  for  him  to 
keep  his  eyes  on  the  clock  and  the  calendar;  and 
to  judge  his  success  by  the  amount  accomplished 
within  a  given  time. 

Where  the  Time  of  Labor  Goes. — The  time  of 
all  employes  of  a  shop  is  spent  in  three  different 
ways : 

A.  In  useful  labor. 

B.  In  useless  labor. 

C.  In  idleness. 

Useful  Labor  Uses  Time  Constructively. — It  is 
evident  that  the  income  of  any  plant  is  the  resuh 
only  of  useful  labor.  However,  the  time  spent  in 
useless  labor  and  in  idleness  must  be  paid  for; 
and,  since  the  income  is  the  result  of  useful  labor, 
those  who  are  engaged  in  it  must  earn  pay  for 
those  engaged  in  useless  labor  and  those  who  are 
idle.  The  result  is  that  those  who  do  useful  work 
do  not  receive  full  pay  for  all  they  produce  and  are 
entitled  to.  If  useless  work  and  idleness  are  done 
away  with,  those  who  are  doing  useful  work  can 
be  paid  higher  wages. 

It  is  the  object  of  any  farseeing  management 
to  reduce  the  expense  of  idleness  as  far  as  possible, 
and  to  pay  those  engaged  in  useful  work  accord- 
ing to  the  amount  of  work  they  do.  The  progress 
made  toward  this  end  depends  almost  entirely  on 
the  foreman's  ability  to  run  his  shop  properly. 
The  methods  of  production  presented  in  chapters 


Utilizing  the  Time  of  Labor  53 

2  and  3  were  worked  out  for  the  purpose  of  en- 
abling the  foreman  to  use  the  time  of  all  the  men 
in  his  shop  on  useful  work.  Many  foremen  have 
operated  their  departments  by  these  methods  and 
the  results  have  been  to  their  own  advantage  as 
well  as  to  that  of  their  workmen  and  employers. 

Forms  of  Useless  Labor. — Time  spent  on  work 
which  is  of  no  value  falls  into  three  classes : 

A.  Making  things  not  wanted. 

B.  Spoiling  work. 

C.  Doing  work  in  a  longer  way 
than  is  necessary. 

Making  Things  Not  Wanted. — When  there  is 
a  good  deal  of  work  to  be  done,  we  want  to  manu- 
facture first  the  goods  which  will  be  used  first. 
In  order  to  do  this  the  foreman  asks  the  super- 
intendent's office,  when  it  issues  an  order,  to  tell 
him  when  this  work  is  to  be  completed.  From  the 
dates  given  he  can  easily  see  which  work  is  of 
most  importance. 

However,  there  are  constant  fluctuations  in 
markets  and  changes  in  demands  of  customers 
which  make  it  necessary  to  alter  the  dates  for 
completion  of  these  orders.  Notification  of  these 
changes  does  not  always  come  through  to  the 
foreman  promptly ;  so,  in  order  to  avoid  the  waste 
of  time  on  work  which  need  not  be  done  immedi- 
ately, the  foreman,  on  his  "Order  of  Work"  sheet 
advises  the  superintendent's  office  each  day  as  to 
what  work  he  expects  to  do  the  following  day. 
This  report  is  given  to  the  superintendent's  office 


54  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

in  sufficient  time  for  that  office  to  check  it  up  and 
advise  the  foreman  of  any  changes  before  the 
work  is  actually  begun. 

Order  of  Work  Sheet. — On  the  left  side  of  his 
Order  of  Work  sheet  (Figure  1,  page  55)  the 
foreman  lists  all  the  machines  in  his  department, 
arranging  them  in  groups. 

Opposite  each  machine  he  then  writes  down 
the  order  or  orders  he  expects  to  run  on  that  ma- 
chine the  following  day.  If  he  expects  to  do  more 
than  one  order  on  a  machine,  he  lists  them  in  the 
sequence  in  which  he  intends  to  do  them.  Oppo- 
site each  order  number  he  writes  whatever  in- 
formation is  necessary  to  identify  them,  such  as 
the  part  and  the  operation.  If  there  is  more  than 
one  piece  on  the  order  he  shows  the  number  of 
pieces  called  for. 

On  this  Order  of  Work  sheet  the  foreman  has 
shown  what  he  expects  to  do  with  his  machines 
the  following  day,  but  in  making  it  out  he  is  prob- 
ably confronted  by  a  lack  of  specific  information 
as  to  just  which  orders  are  of  the  greatest  im- 
portance. He  has,  of  course,  taken  advantage  of 
whatever  information  the  superintendent's  office 
has  given  him  on  the  orders  as  to  the  dates 
wanted;  but  he  can  never  be  quite  sure  that  he  is 
running  his  orders  in  the  proper  sequence.  Ac- 
cordingly he  makes  out  three  copies  of  his  Order 
of  Work  sheet — the  first  on  white  paper,  the  sec- 
ond on  yellow,  and  the  third  on  blue — and  sends 
the  white  copy  to  the  superintendent  not  later  than 
three  o'clock  of  the  day  before  the  work  is  to  be 


Utilizing  the  Time  of  Labor 


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56  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

done.  This  gives  the  superintendent's  office  time 
to  go  over  the  report  to  see  whether  or  not  the 
orders  are  being  run  in  accordance  with  their  latest 
plans.  If  not,  the  superintendent's  office  tells  the 
foreman  what  changes  should  be  made,  and  he 
has  time  to  make  them  before  he  begins  work  the 
next  morning.  In  other  words,  the  foreman  writes 
down  his  understanding  of  the  proper  sequence 
of  work  and  asks  the  superintendent  to  check  him 
up.  This  makes  it  unnecessary  to  take  work  out 
of  machines  after  it  has  been  begun,  and  avoids 
criticism  after  the  work  has  been  completed. 

The  blue  copy  of  this  Order  of  Work  is  given 
by  the  foreman  to  his  man  who  supplies  materials 
to  the  machines — frequently  called  the  "move- 
man."  From  this  sheet,  the  moveman  gets  his 
day's  work;  that  is,  he  sees  what  orders  are  to  be 
run  on  the  various  machines  and  he  brings  ma- 
terials to  these  machines  before  the  previous 
orders  have  been  finished.  When  he  delivers  the 
material  for  any  job,  he  checks  it  off  on  his  copy, 
and  when  he  is  not  able  to  get  the  material,  he 
writes  the  reason  on  the  report.  Before  the  end 
of  the  day  he  returns  his  copy  to  the  foreman. 

In  the  meantime  the  foreman  has  given  the 
yellow  copy  to  his  clerk,  who  assigns  jobs  to  the 
workmen.  The  clerk  uses  it  throughout  the  day 
in  handing  out  jobs  and  checks  on  it  the  jobs  as 
they  are  begun  and  completed;  if  not  begun, 
he  gives  the  reason  why.  At  the  end  of  the  day, 
the  clerk  enters  on  his  copy  the  information  which 
the  moveman  has  written  on  the  blue  copy  and 


Utilizing  the  Time  of  Labor  57 

sends  it  to  the  superintendent,  who  can  then  see 
how  the  plan  submitted  the  previous  day  has  been 
lived  up  to.  Where  the  plan  was  not  followed 
he  can  see  the  reason  why.  In  this  way  the  super- 
intendent and  the  foreman  are  kept  continually 
in  touch  with  each  other  and  in  a  manner  which 
does  not  require  very  much  time.  If  the  foreman 
is  not  planning  his  work  as  the  superintendent 
wishes,  mistakes  can  be  avoided  instead  of  having 
to  be  corrected  at  considerable  expense  after  the 
work  is  done.  It  is  evident  that  the  foreman  can 
get  more  advice  and  help  from  his  superintendent 
in  this  way  than  by  handling  matters  through  con- 
versation. 

Since  a  large  part  of  the  work  of  making  out 
these  Order  of  Work  sheets  is  of  a  routine  na- 
ture— simply  requiring  a  knowledge  of  the  shop 
and  the  work  in  it — the  foreman  can  relieve  him- 
self of  much  of  the  detail  by  choosing  one  of  his 
best  men  to  do  this  planning  for  him  and  submit 
it  for  his  approval.  He  can  also  delegate  much 
of  his  other  work  to  a  clerk  who  is  familiar  with 
the  shop. 

The  amount  of  necessary  planning  and  record- 
ing depends  on  the  size  of  the  department.  In 
some  places  the  foreman  needs  no  assistants  and 
in  others  he  needs  half  a  dozen;  but  he  should 
never  be  so  occupied  with  detail  work  that  he 
cannot  look  after  his  real  job  of  getting  work 
done.  In  this  book  the  foreman  is  spoken  of  as 
doing  everything,  although  he  will  undoubtedly 
delegate  a  part  of  the  work  to  others. 


58  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Avoiding  Spoiled  Work. — The  spoiling  of  work 
is  usually  due  to  the  fact  that  the  workman  either 
does  not  know  what  is  to  be  done,  or  how  to  do  it. 
To  avoid  this  waste  the  foreman  gives  each  work- 
man specific  instructions  as  to  what  he  is  to  do, 
and  he  supplements  these  instructions  with  such 
information  as  may  be  needed  to  enable  the  man  to 
do  the  work  properly — how  to  do  it.  The  fore- 
man, or  his  clerk,  gives  the  instructions  on  produc- 
tion cards  showing  what  is  to  be  done.  Informa- 
tion as  to  how  the  work  should  be  done  can  be 
given  in  writing,  on  blue  prints,  or  by  men  specially 
skilled  as  instructors.  The  most  effective  results 
can  be  obtained  through  skilled  men  who  can  act 
both  as  instructors  and  inspectors.  Such  men 
know  the  standard  of  quality  established  by  the 
company.  They,  accordingly,  inspect  the  work  as 
it  comes  from  the  machines  to  see  that  its  quality 
is  equal  to  those  standards.  If  the  work  does  not 
come  up  to  the  standards,  the  inspectors  are  so 
familiar  with  the  process  that  they  can  tell  the 
operator  what  mistake  he  has  made  and  can  show 
him  how  to  correct  it.  The  more  frequently  the 
work  in  process  is  inspected  and  the  nearer  the 
inspector  is  to  the  operator,  the  less  there  will  be 
of  spoiled  work. 

Doing  Work  a  Longer  Way  Than  Is  Necessary. 
If  certain  work  is  being  done  in  one  hour  when 
it  is  possible  to  do  it  in  half  an  hour  with  equip- 
ment already  on  hand,  but  by  a  different  method, 
then  that  half  hour  is  just  as  much  wasted  as  if 
the  operator  spent  it  in  idleness.     It  is  to  the  in- 


Utilizing  the  Time  of  Labor  59 

terest  of  everyone  for  the  foreman  to  reduce  this 
waste  time  by  using  his  own  knowledge  and  the 
knowledge  of  other  people  to  devise  the  shortest 
and  most  effective  methods  of  getting  work  done. 
In  thus  improving  methods,  the  foreman  can  exer- 
cise his  ingenuity  to  the  utmost.  It  is  fortunate 
that  he  has  at  his  command  such  a  vast  fund  of 
mechanical  knowledge  as  we  have  in  America  to- 
day. His  improvement  in  mechanical  processes  is 
limited  only  by  his  ability  to  accept  and  apply  the 
knowledge  of  others. 

The  Waste  of  Idleness. — The  tremendous 
waste  of  productive  power  in  this  country  through 
idleness  is  almost  unbelievable.  One  of  our  great- 
est engineers,  H.  L.  Gantt,  after  years  of  experi- 
ence in  a  variety  of  plants,  said  that  the  equipment 
of  American  shops  is  used  only  about  fifty  per  cent 
of  the  time ;  and,  when  it  is  used,  only  about  one- 
half  of  the  possible  output  is  secured  from  it. 
In  other  words,  the  output  of  American  shops  is 
only  about  twenty-five  per  cent  of  what  it  might  be. 

The  greatest  and  most  important  savings  which 
a  foreman  can  make  in  his  own  department  are 
through  the  reduction  of  idleness.  There  are  two 
kinds  of  idleness : 

A.  Idleness  of  machines 
or  equipment. 

B.  Idleness  of  men. 

Idleness  of  Machines  or  Equipment. — In  his 
attempt  to  reduce  the  idleness  of  machines,  a  fore- 
man's first  step  is  to  find  out  the  facts.     Accord- 


60  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

ingly,  he  has  records  kept  of  when  machines  start 
up  and  when  they  stop,  with  the  reason  for  the 
stopping.  From  a  pile  of  daily  reports  of  this 
kind,  it  is  difficult  to  get  a  clear  idea  of  the  use  of 
his  equipment,  so  he  tabulates  the  facts  on  a 
"Machine  Record  Chart,"  which  is  illustrated  in 
Chapter  3.  When  a  group  of  machines,  there- 
fore, are  totaled  and  these  group  totals,  in  turn, 
are  added  up  to  get  the  total  running  time  of  the 
department  as  a  whole,  the  foreman  has  a  com- 
prehensive view  of  the  use  of  his  equipment 
which  he  could  not  get  so  well  in  any  other  way. 

Having  convinced  himself  as  to  the  amount  of 
idleness  in  his  department  and  having  ascertained 
in  each  case  the  reason  for  the  idleness,  his  job  is 
to  reduce  it.  When  the  reason  for  the  stopping 
of  the  machine  is  understood,  the  responsibility 
can  easily  be  fixed.  If  the  fault  is  chargeable  to 
the  foreman  or  to  any  of  his  assistants,  he  will  im- 
mediately take  the  steps  necessary  to  avoid  its  re- 
currence. If  the  responsibility  for  the  idleness 
rests  on  the  shoulders  of  some  one  outside  of  the 
foreman's  department,  he  will  attempt  to  gain  the 
cooperation  of  the  responsible  individual  or  else 
ask  help  from  the  superintendent.  In  taking  such 
matters  up  with  men  outside  of  his  department, 
the  foreman  should  confine  the  discussion  to  spe- 
cific cases,  rather  than  deal  in  generalities.  In 
that  way  permanent  good  feeling  is  established. 

Idleness  of  Men. — Most  men  would  rather 
work  than  stand  around  doing  nothing.  There 
are  exceptions,  of  course,  but  that  statement  will 


Utilizing  the  Time  of  Labor  61 

be  generally  agreed  to.  In  the  case  of  machines, 
it  is  enough  to  record  that  they  are  running  or  not 
running,  since  the  speed  of  the  machine  or  the 
amount  it  turns  out  when  running  depends  upon 
the  man  who  is  operating  it. 

In  the  case  of  a  man,  however,  the  mere  fact 
that  he  is  working  or  not  working  is  not  sufficient; 
we  must  know  the  rate  at  which  he  works.  Conse- 
quently, the  foreman  records  the  amount  of  work 
done  by  the  man  and  compares  it  with  what  he 
believes  could  be  done  by  a  capable  man  on  a  good 
machine.  The  foreman  gets  his  record  of  the 
amount  of  work  done  and  the  time  taken  to  do  it 
from  the  production  card,  and  enters  it  on  the 
"Man  Record  Card."  It  is  necessary  to  have  all 
this  detailed  information  written  down  but  it  is 
difficult  to  get  a  complete  idea  of  the  work  of  a 
group  of  men  from  these  cards.  For  that  reason 
the  foreman  has  these  records  presented  on  a 
uMan  Record  Chart,"  (Chapter  3).  This  chart 
shows  the  amount  of  work  done,  while  the  reason 
for  idleness  is  also  given  where  a  full  day's  work 
is  not  recorded.  Cumulative  lines  show  how  the 
work  done  compares  with  a  full  week's  work. 

Removing  Obstacles  to  Production. — From 
these  charts  the  foreman  is  usually  surprised  to 
see  that  the  failure  of  the  operator  to  do  work 
within  the  estimated  time  is  more  often  his  fault 
than  that  of  the  workman.  He  learns  for  the 
first  time  how  much  of  the  time  of  the  operators 
is  wasted  because  of  the  improper  sharpening  of 
tools,  defects  in  material  which  should  be  caught 


62  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

by  the  inspectors,  the  unsatisfactory  condition  of 
machines,  and  the  lack  of  proper  instruction  on 
new  jobs.  These  charts  bring  home  to  him  very 
forcibly  the  reasons  why  he  fails  to  make  good  on 
some  of  his  promises  to  complete  work  at  specified 
times. 

Where  these  reasons  for  the  failure  of  an  oper- 
ator to  do  a  full  day's  work  are  beyond  the  fore- 
man's control,  he  takes  the  matter  up  with  the 
individual  who  is  responsible  and  attempts  to 
prevent  its  recurrence.  When  these  obstacles 
affect  the  wages  paid  the  man,  there  are  frequent 
complaints. 

Not  long  ago  an  operator  came  to  his  foreman, 
saying  that  when  he  came  to  work  there  he  had 
accepted  the  average  day  rate  on  the  understand- 
ing that  the  piece  rates  were  generous,  and  that  he 
could  make  twice  as  much  as  his  day  rate  if  he 
wanted  to  work  hard  enough  on  piece  work.  He 
had  been  able  to  do  that  when  there  was  plenty 
of  work  and  his  machine  was  in  good  condition; 
but  most  of  the  time  he  had  made  only  a  little 
more  than  his  day  rate.  WThen  he  finished  one 
job  he  usually  had  to  wait  hours  for  the  next. 
His  machine  was  worn  out  and  was  frequently 
down  for  repairs.  Because  it  could  not  be  kept 
to  close  limits,  a  good  deal  of  the  work  he  did 
was  not  passed  by  the  inspector;  so,  when  he  had 
no  work  or  his  machine  was  down,  he  had  to  sweep 
the  floor,  clean  other  machines,  or  do  nothing. 
He  did  not  like  that,  and  besjdes,  it  paid  him  only 


Utilizing  the  Time  of  Labor  63 

his  day  rate.    As  a  result  his  pay  envelope  did  not 
contain  what  he  needed  to  live  on. 

This  is  beyond  doubt  a  common  occurrence; 
but  it  can  be  avoided,  to  a  great  extent,  when  the 
foreman  devotes  sufficient  time  to  removing  the 
obstacles  which  prevent  his  men  from  doing  a  fair 
day's  work. 

When  a  sufficient  number  of  instructors  and 
inspectors  have  been  provided  and  the  mainte- 
nance of  tools  and  machines  has  been  improved, 
the  foreman  begins  to  show  the  charts  to  his  work- 
men—bringing one  or  two  of  them  at  a  time  into 
his  office.  It  is  surprising  how  quickly  they  grasp 
the  idea  of  the  charts  and  learn  to  read  them. 
Even  foreigners  who  cannot  read  English  can 
understand,  from  the  length  of  the  lines,  the  com- 
parison between  their  ability  and  that  of  the  other 
operators.  Some  of  them  may  have  complaints 
to  make  as  to  the  accuracy  of  the  records;  but 
those  inaccuracies  are  quickly  straightened  out  by 
the  foreman,  who  is  as  anxious  as  the  men  to  have 
the  records  correct. 

The  filling  of  new  positions  or  of  vacancies  is 
made  much  easier  by  the  Man  Record  Charts. 
Long  production  lines  show  that  a  man  at  least 
knows  how  to  do  his  work  right  and  has  some 
initiative.  From  the  men  with  long  lines,  after 
careful  consideration  of  the  other  qualities  needed, 
a  sub-foreman  is  chosen.  The  lines  of  the  various 
sub-foremen  indicate  their  ability  to  get  their 
groups  of  men  to  turn  out  work.  When  the  fore- 
man needs  an  assistant  or  somebody  to  succeed 


64  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

him  when  he  is  promoted,  the  man  is  selected 
from  the  best  of  the  sub-foremen,  as  shown  by 
comparing  records. 

It  is  a  great  advantage  to  the  foreman  to  fill  all 
positions  of  importance  by  promoting  men  already 
in  his  employ;  this  increases  the  loyalty  of  the 
men  in  his  shop,  because  they  know  that  their  work 
will  be  rewarded,  and  also  because  they  see  that 
the  management  of  the  shop  is  gradually  being 
made  up  of  men  selected  for  their  proved  ability — 
men  who  know  the  work  and  can  get  things  done 
on  time. 

Section  II 
Controlling  the  Cost  of  Production 

What  Makes  Up  the  Cost  of  Any  Article? 
The  ability  of  a  foreman  will  be  judged,  at  least  to 
a  certain  extent,  by  the  cost  of  doing  the  work 
given  him.  He  will,  therefore,  want  to  know  what 
his  work  actually  costs.  The  cost  of  manufactur- 
ing an  article  is  made  up  only  of  those  expenses 
actually  incurred  in  the  production  of  that  article. 
For  instance,  the  cost  of  owning  a  building  and 
the  land  on  which  it  stands  is  part  of  the  cost  of 
goods  manufactured  in  that  building.  But  the  cost 
of  owning  the  vacant  lot  across  the  street,  which 
is  not  used  for  anything,  is  not  a  part  of  the  cost 
of  manufacture,  even  if  the  land  is  owned  by  the 
manufacturing  company.  It  is  an  investment  to 
provide  for  future  growth — a  sinking  fund  paid 
out  of  profits,  and  not  a  part  of  the  cost  of  the 


Controlling  the  Cost  of  Production         65 

goods  produced.  Only  buildings  and  land  that 
are  used  should  be  included  in  costs  of  manu- 
facturing. 

Similarly,  the  cost  of  an  article  must  include  the 
cost  of  owning  and  housing  the  machine  on  which 
it  is  manufactured;  but  it  should  not  include  the 
cost  of  owning  a  machine  a  few  feet  away,  which 
has  been  idle  and  has  not  in  any  way  influenced 
the  manufacture  of  that  article. 

How  Cost  Is  Made  Up. — The  cost  of  an  article 
is  made  up  of  the  following  items  : 

A.  Cost  of  material. 

B.  Cost  of  direct  labor  (wages  of  the  operator 
of  a  machine  and  his  helpers,  if  any). 

C.  Cost  of  owning  or  renting  the  shop  and 
keeping  it  equipped  and  organized  to  turn 
out  work  (sometimes  called  overhead  or 
burden). 

The  first  two  items  are  easily  understood  and 
arrived  at,  for  they  are  represented  by  money 
which  is  paid  out  for  a  definite  amount  of  material 
and  a  specific  job.  The  third  item  is  made  up  of 
a  variety  of  expenses  and  must  be  computed  care- 
fully.   It,  in  turn,  is  made  up  of  four  items : 

1.  Plant  cost. 

2.  Department  supervision  cost. 

3.  Machine  cost. 

4.  Power  cost. 


66  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Plant  Cost.— The  cost  of  running  a  plant  in- 
cludes : 

1.  Owning  or  renting  the  building,  distributed 
as  follows: 

a.  Interest  on  investment  in  land  and 
building. 

b.  Taxes  on  land  and  building. 

c.  Insurance  on  building. 

d.  Repairs  to  building. 

e.  Depreciation  of  building,  i.  e.,  the  gen- 
eral decrease  in  value  of  the  building  as 
it  grows  older. 

2.  Insurance  on  contents  of  building,  employ- 
er's liability,  etc. 

3.  Heat,  light,  and  water. 

4.  Supplies — such  as  waste,  oil,  lubricating 
fluid,  etc. 

5.  Equipment — such  as  trucks,  containers,  etc. 

6.  Maintenance  and  service,  covering  the 
wages  of  cleaners  and  truckmen,  cost  of  run- 
ning storerooms,  repair  departments,  etc. 

7.  Plant  supervision,  including  salary  of  super- 
intendent or  manager,  and  the  expense  of 
his  office. 

When  these  expenses  are  calculated  for  a  year 
and  totaled,  they  are  distributed  to  the  various 
departments,  usually  on  a  basis  of  floor  area.  For 
instance :  If  the  plant  expense  for  a  year  amounts 
to  $300,000,  and  there  are  ten  departments  of 
equal  size,  it  would  amount  to  $30,000  per  de- 
partment. 


Controlling  the  Cost  of  Production         67 

Department  Supervision  Cost. — The  cost  of 
supervising  a  department  is  made  up  of  the  sal- 
aries of  the  foreman,  sub-foremen,  instructors, 
clerks,  and  so  forth.  This  might  possibly  amount 
to  $20,000.  It  is  added  to  the  department  cost  of 
$30,000,  giving  a  total  of  $50,000. 

It  is  evident  that  material  which  is  standing  in 
a  shop  is  not  affected  in  any  way  by  that  shop. 
It  is  only  when  machines  are  applied  to  the  ma- 
terial that  any  value  is  added  to  it.  The  plant 
and  the  department  affect  that  material  only 
through  the  machines.  Therefore,  the  plant  and 
departmental  cost  must  be  applied  to  the  material 
or  the  job  through  the  machines.  Accordingly, 
that  expense  is  distributed  to  the  machines,  either 
according  to  the  floor  space  they  occupy  or  their 
value. 

For  instance,  if  that  expense  amounts  to  the 
$50,000  mentioned,  and  there  are  ten  machines 
all  of  the  same  size  or  value,  the  annual  expense 
would  be  $5,000  per  machine.  If  there  are  ap- 
proximately 2,400  working  hours  in  the  year,  the 
machine  hourly  expense  rate  would  be  $2.08. 

Machine  Cost. — There  is  also  the  cost  of  own- 
ing a  machine  and  keeping  it  ready  for  work.  This 
cost  is  composed  of: 

1.  Interest  on  the  money  invested  in  the  ma- 
chine. 

2.  Depreciation  of  the  machine,  due  to  age  and 
the  progress  in  mechanical  design  which  will 
make  the  machine  out  of  date. 


68  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

3.  Repairs  to  keep  the  machine  in  condition  to 
turn  out  good  work. 

If  this  should  cost,  on  the  machine  mentioned 
above,  $480  per  year,  the  cost  per  hour  would  be 
20  cents.  Adding  this  to  the  $2.08,  would  give 
us  a  cost  of  $2.28  in  order  to  keep  this  machine 
ready  to  run. 

Power  Cost. — When  the  machine  is  started  up, 
it  is  necessary  to  add  the  cost  of  power,  and  some- 
times a  little  wear  on  the  machine.  For  example : 
The  power  may  cost  50  cents  per  hour.  Adding 
this  to  the  $2.28  gives  us  a  total  cost  of  $2.78, 
when  the  machine  is  running. 

Total  Shop  Cost. — We  thus  find  that  the  total 
shop  cost  of  any  article  manufactured  is  made 
up  of: 

A.  Material. 

B.  Direct  labor. 

C.  Expense  of  owning  the  shop  and  keeping  it 
equipped  and  organized,  which  in  turn  is 
composed  of: 

1.  Plant  cost. 

2.  Department  supervision  cost. 

3.  Machine  cost. 

4.  Power  cost. 

Relation  of  Costs  and  Selling  Prices. — There 
is,  of  course,  a  considerable  difference  between  the 
total  shop  cost  and  the  selling  price  of  most  articles 
of  commerce.  If  the  business  is  to  be  successful 
the  selling  price  must  cover  the  following  items: 


Controlling  the  Cost  of  Production         69 

1.  Total  shop  cost. 

2.  Expense  of  selling  (including  salaries,  com- 
missions, and  traveling  expenses  of  sales- 
men, dealers'  commissions,  discounts,  ex- 
pense of  branch  offices,  warehouses,  adver- 
tising, and  so  on). 

3.  Administration  expense  (including  salaries 
of  the  officers  of  the  company  and  the  ex- 
penses of  the  executive  offices). 

4.  Profit  (out  of  which  must  be  paid  interest 
on  borrowed  money,  purchases  of  new 
equipment,  buildings,  land,  development  of 
inventions  or  new  markets,  dividends  to 
stockholders,  and  the  cost  of  maintaining 
machines  in  idleness). 

The  foreman  will  increase  his  value  if  he  gets 
a  broad  view  of  the  business  as  a  whole,  for  the 
more  he  knows  about  the  effect  of  his  work  on 
others  the  more  intelligently  he  can  do  his  own  job. 

Machine  Rates  and  Direct  Labor. — In  the  aver- 
age shop  the  machine  rate  amounts  to  a  great  deal 
more  than  the  hourly  rate  of  the  direct  labor.  So 
much  expense  has  to  be  incurred  to  equip  and 
organize  the  shop,  and  so  many  things  are  done 
for  the  operator  in  order  to  leave  him  free  to 
run  his  machine,  that  the  cost  of  this  service  to 
him  is  naturally  greater  than  the  amount  paid  him. 
It  is  not  at  all  unusual  for  the  machine  hour  rate 
to  be  more  than  ten  times  as  large  as  the  hourly 
wage  rate  of  the  operator  of  the  machine. 

The  Value  of  Cost  Records. — The  expense  of 
getting  accurate  cost  records  is  considerable,  and 


70  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

it  is  not  justified  unless  the  records  are  utilized. 
Their  value  to  the  treasurer  of  the  company  is  to 
show  him  where  the  money  has  gone;  but  that  is 
very  small  compared  with  their  value  to  the  super- 
intendent and  to  the  foreman.  So  far  as  they  are 
concerned,  the  principal  reason  for  accumulating 
cost  figures  is  that  they  may  use  them  as  a  basis 
for  reducing  future  costs.  In  order  to  make  this 
use  of  them,  the  records  must  be  in  their  hands 
very  soon  after  the  expense  has  been  incurred. 

If  the  foreman  works  on  an  order  for  several 
days,  he  wants  to  know  what  his  production  is 
costing  the  first  day  or  two,  so  that  he  can  get  it 
down,  if  possible,  on  the  remainder  of  the  order. 
He  also  wants  to  know  the  total  cost  of  that  order, 
so  that  he  can  do  the  work  at  a  lower  cost  later 
on,  when  a  similar  order  comes  through.  When 
a  foreman  makes  prompt  use  of  cost  records,  he 
realizes,  more  than  he  ever  did  before,  that  low 
wages  do  not  mean  low  costs.  On  the  contrary, 
he  learns  that  low  costs  are  more  frequently  the 
result  of  high  wages.  The  greatest  savings  that 
the  foreman  can  make  are  the  result  of  the  better 
handling  of  his  own  job  by  providing  economical 
methods  and  equipment  and  by  intelligently  plan- 
ning the  work  of  others. 

The  Cost  of  Idleness. — In  arriving  at  the  cost 
of  running  a  shop  and  figuring  the  machine  rates, 
it  will  be  seen  that  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the 
cost  is  incurred  in  keeping  the  machine  ready  to 
run,  and  that  the  added  cost,  when  the  power  is 
turned  on,  is  comparatively  small.    In  the  instance 


Controlling  the  Cost  of  Production         71 

quoted  above,  it  cost  $2.28  to  keep  the  machine 
ready  to  run,  and  only  50  cents  more  to  run  it. 
The  expense  of  $2.28  goes  on  whether  the  machine 
runs  or  not ;  and  for  every  hour  it  stands  idle  the 
company  must  pay  $2.28  for  rent,  supervision, 
and  the  like.  This  expense  cannot,  of  course,  be 
charged  against  the  product  of  any  other  machine, 
for  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  that  product. 

Since  the  machines,  equipment,  or  buildings 
which  are  standing  idle  do  not  affect  the  goods 
produced,  the  cost  of  that  idleness  must  not  be 
included  in  the  cost  of  the  goods  produced.  It 
can  only  be  charged  to  "profit  and  loss." 

Idleness  of  machines  is  caused  by  the  failure 
of  the  foreman  and  superintendent  to  keep  ma- 
chines in  repair  and  provide  power,  tools,  ma- 
terial, and  operators,  or  by  the  failure  of  the 
Sales  Department  to  secure  orders  for  work  which 
can  be  done  on  those  machines.  It  is  obvious, 
therefore,  that  in  fixing  the  price  of  goods  pro- 
duced, if  the  profit  is  made  sufficiently  large  to 
reimburse  the  company  for  its  losses  due  to  idle- 
ness, the  public  is  made  to  pay  for  the  inefficiency 
of  the  management.  If  much  idleness  is  charged 
to  the  public,  it  will  eventually  react  to  the  com- 
pany's disadvantage,  because  the  public  will  buy 
from  a  competitor  who  charges  less  idleness  to 
the  consumer. 

By  keeping  the  cost  of  goods  produced  as  low 
as  possible,  and  by  eliminating  idleness  and  wasted 
effort,   the   foremen   of  any  plant  have   greater 


72  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

power  to  influence  the  profits  of  a  company  than 
the  men  who  purchase  the  material  or  who  sell  the 
product. 


Section  III 
Maintaining  the  Quality  of  the  Product 

Relation  of  Quality  to  Time  and  Cost. — In 
order  to  sell  the  product  of  a  plant,  it  is  necessary 
to  have  a  definite  standard  of  quality.  This  stand- 
ard, or  grade,  is  determined  after  considering 
the  needs  of  consumers  and  the  probable  cost  of 
production.  The  foreman  accepts  this  standard 
of  quality,  and  his  job  is  to  turn  out  goods  of  that 
grade  at  a  specified  time  and  at  a  reasonable  cost. 
Anyone  can  do  work  of  a  specified  quality  if  he 
takes  time  enough  to  do  it.  It  is  not  so  easy  when 
time  and  cost  must  be  considered. 

What  Influences  Quality. — The  quality  of 
goods  produced  is  largely  affected  by  four 
things : 

1.  Attitude  of  workers. 

2.  Working  conditions. 

3.  Equipment  and  machines. 

4.  Inspectors  and  instructors. 

Attitude  of  Workers  A  feels  Quality  of  the 
Product. — The  effect  of  carelessness  on  the  quality 
of  output  is  known  to  every  foreman.  To  prevent 
this  carelessness,  the  attention  of  workmen  must 


Maintaining  the  Quality  of  the  Product      73 

be  directed  to  the  quality  required;  and  it  must 
be  made  to  their  advantage  to  turn  out  goods 
which  are  up  to  that  standard.  The  actions  of 
ninety-nine  out  of  one  hundred  men  are  determined 
by  a  more  or  less  intelligent  self-interest.  In  deal- 
ing with  men,  the  wise  foreman  does  not  blind 
himself  to  that  fact.  Since  he  wants  good  work, 
he  makes  it  to  the  financial  advantage  of  the 
workmen  to  turn  out  good  work. 

Working  Conditions  Affect  Quality  of  the 
Product. — A  workman  is  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously influenced  by  the  amount  of  light  he 
gets  on  his  work,  the  ventilation  of  the  room,  the 
chair  he  sits  on,  the  convenient  placing  or  arrange- 
ment of  his  machine  or  workbench,  and  the  clean- 
ness of  the  walls  and  floors.  In  fact,  his  whole 
surroundings  are  reflected  in  the  work  he  does. 
In  a  shop  where  things  are  kept  in  good  order, 
and  the  routine  of  the  department  goes  on  quietly 
and  methodically,  the  man  can  keep  his  mind  on 
his  work.  He  will  make  fewer  mistakes,  and  do 
work  of  a  better  quality  than  in  a  shop  where  he 
is  continually  falling  over  things  left  on  the  floor, 
and  is  disturbed  by  frequent  arguments  and  petty 
annoyances. 

Equipment  and  Machines  A  feet  Quality. — The 
work  done  in  any  shop  is  affected  to  a  consider- 
able extent  by  the  condition  of  the  machines 
on  which  it  is  done.  In  fact,  a  high  quality  of  out- 
put cannot  be  maintained  when  poor  equipment 
is  used.  There  is  a  point  in  the  life  of  any  ma- 
chine where  it  is  more  economical  to  get  rid  of 


74  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

it  than  to  use  it.  The  foreman  of  any  shop,  no 
matter  how  large  or  how  small,  will  find  it  worth 
while  to  study  the  needs  of  his  shop,  to  provide 
the  best  equipment  consistent  with  economy,  and 
to  see  to  it  that  his  equipment  is  properly  main- 
tained and  used  to  the  best  advantage.  The  more 
attention  he  gives  to  this  subject,  the  better  will 
be  the  quality  of  his  output. 

Functions  of  Inspectors  and  Instructors. — In- 
spectors frequently  understand  that  it  is  their  duty 
merely  to  detect  poor  work.  Better  results  can 
be  obtained  if  they  understand  that  their  function 
is  to  help  operators  turn  out  good  work.  That 
gives  them  a  positive  and  constructive  object,  in- 
stead of  one  which  is  negative.  If  the  inspector 
is,  at  the  same  time,  an  instructor  and  can,  not  only 
tell  the  operator  that  his  work  is  not  up  to  stand- 
ard, but  also  show  him  where  he  made  his  mis- 
take and  how  to  avoid  that  mistake  in  future,  he 
becomes  a  much  more  useful  person.  In  doing 
that,  the  inspector  secures  a  degree  of  cooperation 
and  a  reduction  in  the  waste  of  material  and  time 
which  are  not  possible  when  he  has  no  responsi- 
bility except  that  of  inspecting  worked  material. 

Increasing  the  Productivity  of  Slow  Men. 
The  Man  Record  Charts,  which  are  given  in 
Chapter  3,  show  how  much  good  work  each  man 
does  in  comparison  with  the  foreman's  estimate, 
which  has  been  made  after  taking  into  considera- 
tion time,  cost,  and  quality.  The  foreman  knows 
that  he  is  judged  to  a  great  extent  by  his  ability 
so  to  run  his  department  that  his  men  can  produce 


Maintaining  the  Quality  of  the  Product      75 

a  fair  day's  work  and  that  it  is  to  his  advantage 
to  help  those  who.  keep  the  average  down.  He 
realizes  that  the  idler  and  the  slow  worker  are 
more  in  need  of  help  than  the  good  worker.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  foreman  shows  these  charts  to  his 
workmen  with  the  idea  of  developing  their  am- 
bition and  a  spirit  of  rivalry  among  them.  He 
soon  learns,  however,  that  the  long  production 
lines  of  the  two  or  three  men  who  are  head  and 
shoulders  above  the  others  seem  to  have  little 
effect  on  the  average  workman,  but  that  he  is  very 
strongly  influenced  by  the  lines  of  the  men  he  con- 
siders his  equals.  He  hates  to  be  beaten  by  an 
equal  and  will  do  all  he  can  to  keep  up  with  him. 

There  are  some  workmen,  however,  who  cannot 
measure  up  to  the  average  and  do  not  respond  to 
the  foreman's  effort  to  stimulate  their  ambition. 
These  are  the  men  he  studies  most  carefully.  Even 
without  records  these  men  know  whether  they  are 
better  or  worse  than  those  around  them,  and  they 
resent  the  introduction  of  methods  which  make 
this  fact  evident  to  the  foreman  and  the  other 
workmen.  Those  who  have,  in  the  past,  tried  to 
cover  up  their  low  production  by  attempting  to 
stand  in  with  the  foreman  and  can  no  longer  do 
so  are  opposed  to  these  records  and  do  all  they 
can  to  undermine  their  usefulness. 

Experience  has  taught  the  foreman  that  men 
who  feel  their  inferiority  are  very  apt  to  do  every- 
thing possible  to  distract  the  attention  of  others 
from  that  inferiority.  This  frequently  shows  it- 
self in  flagrant  breaches  of  shop  discipline  or  in 


76  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

creating  discontent  in   the  minds  of  others.     In 

this  way  they  secure  an  outlet  for  their  energy 
and  distract  their  own  attention,  at  least,  from 
their  inferiority. 

When  the  foreman  studies  the  records  of  these 
men  who  have  short  lines  on  the  chart,  he  realizes 
that  they  are  usually  the  backbone  of  strikes  and 
discord  in  his  department.  Their  consciousness 
of  inferiority  and  their  discontent  are  continually 
smoldering  and  are  easily  fanned  into  flame  by 
some  fancied  grievance,  some  real  injustice,  or 
some  capable  agitator.  The  foreman  who  wants 
fewer  labor  troubles  in  future  realizes  that  he 
must  solve  the  problem  of  what  to  do  with  these 
men  who  are  below  the  average — whose  lines  are 
short  on  the  chart.  Shall  he  drop  them  from  his 
payroll  and  ask  the  Employment  Department  to 
hire  others  to  fill  their  places?  He  knows  that 
the  available  supply  of  good  workmen  in  most 
cities,  except  in  times  of  business  depression,  is  in- 
adequate and  that  those  hired  will  probably  be 
just  as  poor  as  those  discharged.  If  he  spends  an 
hour  in  the  Employment  Department  watching  the 
applicants,  he  will  see  that  they  are  made  up 
largely  of  men  who  have  never  learned  to  do  any 
job  well — men  who  have  been  discharged  from 
other  jobs  because  the  quality  of  their  work  has 
been  poor  and  their  production  low. 

Discharging  the  inferior  workmen  in  his  depart- 
ment will  merely  add  to  this  mass  of  floating 
labor.  The  foreman  who  is  looking  into  the 
future  will  not  discharge  these  men;  he  will  try 


Maintaining  the  Quality  of  the  Product       77 

to  train  them  to  do  at  least  one  job  well.  The 
foreman  tries  these  men  out  on  various  kinds  of 
work  until  some  job  is  found  on  which  the)7  can 
do  better  work  than  on  others.  On  that  job  a  man 
is  given  special  instruction,  so  that  no  matter  how 
long  it  takes  to  bring  him  up  to  the  average,  there 
are  always  sufficient  instructors  to  help  him.  If 
there  is  no  work  in  his  own  department  for  which 
one  of  these  men  is  fitted,  the  foreman  asks  an- 
other foreman  if  he  will  not  try  him  out. 

This  method  of  handling  short-line  men  appeals 
to  the  foreman's  sense  of  fair  play.  He  is  giving 
these  men,  for  once  in  their  lives,  a  real  chance  to 
make  good.  When  these  men,  who  formerly  had 
short  lines,  get  to  the  point  where  they  are  turn- 
ing out  a  full  day's  work,  week  after  week,  they 
have  almost  invariably  forgotten  their  discontent, 
and  some  of  them  even  show  an  awakening  ambi- 
tion to  work  with  the  team. 


Part  II:    The  Foreman 

THE  FOREMAN  AND  PRODUCTION 

Section  I 
The  Foreman  and  the  Operations 

The  Worker  as  an  Individual. — The  individual 
worker  is  first  of  all  a  human  being.  That  seems 
so  obvious  as  to  be  almost  unnecessary  of  mention; 
but  we  have  not  acted  as  though  we  thought  so  in 
industry — not  always,  anyway.  The  worker,  be- 
ing a  human  being,  reacts  as  an  individual.  He 
tires  in  a  different  way  from  the  next  man.  He 
gets  his  speed  up  at  a  different  rate.  He  gets  sick 
from  different  causes  and  with  varying  degrees  of 
frequency.  He  thinks  differently,  his  home  neces- 
sities vary,  he  chooses  his  friends  for  different  rea- 
sons, and  buys  things  in  his  individual  way.  He 
may  view  food  as  do  all  the  other  workers,  but  he 
wants  to  choose  it  differently  and  eat  it  at  different 
times.  He  may  wear  clothes  more  or  less  like 
those  his  fellows  wear,  but  after  he  has  worn 
them  a  week  they  are  different.  Each  individual 
worker  is  a  complete  individual  in  himself  with 
his  own  reaction  to  the  work,  the  place,  and  the 
problem. 

One  man  comes  to  me  and  says  that  he  is  very 
discouraged  about  his  place,  the  floors  hurt  his 
feet,  the  work  is  not  interesting,  and  he  stands  in 
a  draft.  Another  says  he  likes  the  work  but  it 
affects  his  eyesight.    Another  enjoys  the  place  but 


The  Foreman  and  the  Operations  79 

would  like  to  change  his  work.     Each  man  acts 
according  to  his  nature  as  an  individual. 

Men  sometimes  act  together  and  manage  to 
agree  upon  a  limited  number  of  things  they  can 
do  in  common  and  for  a  certain  period,  but  they 
are  not  alike  and  their  differences  must  be  recog- 
nized as  well  as  their  common  agreements.  Every 
man  demands  recognition  as  an  individual  and  he 
will  become  restless,  discontented,  and  dissatisfied 
when  he  doesn't  get  it. 

The  Foreman' 's  Opportunity  with  the  Individ- 
ual.— To  treat  every  individual  as  he  should  be 
treated  and,  at  the  same  time,  arrange  an  organi- 
zation in  which  these  individuals  can  work  to- 
gether without  too  much  confusion  constitute  the 
big  problem  of  industrial  organization  today  and 
for  the  next  generation  or  two.  The  foreman 
has  a  far  greater  opportunity  to  do  this  than  any 
of  the  other  supervisors  and  managers.  The 
number  of  men  in  his  group  is  not  large.  It  is  an 
easy  thing  to  get  to  know  them.  The  worker  and 
the  foreman  can  talk  more  intimately  than  any 
others  in  that  plant.  Consequently,  the  foreman 
knows  which  man  needs  a  lot  of  information  to 
keep  him  happy,  he  knows  the  one  who  will  take 
things  on  faith,  he  is  acquainted  with  the  joker 
and  the  grouch,  the  quiet  and  the  talkative  ones. 
He  knows,  moreover,  whether  these  surface  indi- 
cations show  the  real  man  or  are  only  cloaks  or 
shells  put  on  to  conceal  the  actual  man  during  the 
working  hour.  He  can  act  with  each  man  accord- 
ingly.    He  can  grant  to  each  man  in  his  group 


80  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

that  recognition  as  an  individual  which  every 
human  being  wants  and  which  every  human  being 
has  a  right  to  expect. 

We  must  find  a  way  to  recognize  the  individual 
without  losing  our  capacity  to  work  together  to 
the  same  purpose.  There  is  no  man  in  the  indus- 
trial organization  as  capable  of  aiding  in  the  solu- 
tion of  this  big  human  problem  of  industrial 
growth  as  the  foreman.  The  foreman,  with  his 
small  group  looking  to  him  as  a  man  of  superior 
skill  and  capacity  in  their  trade,  and  consulting 
him  on  many  business  and  personal  matters,  can 
recognize  the  individual  properly.  He  can  see  the 
need  for  individual  treatment  and  consideration, 
and  he  knows  the  necessity  of  cooperative  work. 

The  Educative  Value  of  Work. — We  are  in- 
clined to  look  at  the  work  w-e  undertake  as  com- 
prising merely  the  mechanical  or  physical  opera- 
tions for  which  we  are  paid  and  the  immediate 
mental  demands  which  are  concerned  with  that 
same  work.  It  is  not  very  often  that  we  view- 
work  in  its  most  important  sense;  that  is,  as  the 
great  educator  and  developer  of  men — the  only 
educator  for  millions  of  workers. 

Every  man's  job  occupies  a  large  part  of  his 
waking  time.  It  must  be  worked  out  day  after 
day  with  its  problems  of  one  kind  and  another. 
From  the  time  we  leave  school  until  the  time  we 
pass  away,  the  working  wrorld  claims  a  large  part 
of  every  day's  thought  and  a  large  part  of  every 
day's   physical   energy.      Not   only  that,   but  the 


The  Foreman  and  the  Operations  81 

character  of  the  work  itself  has  its  effect  upon  the 
habits  of  the  man. 

The  character  of  the  surroundings,  whether 
they  are  clean  or  dirty;  the  kind  of  work,  whether 
it  is  pleasant  or  otherwise;  the  kind  of  product, 
whether  it  be  something  belonging  to  a  live  neces- 
sity or  something  cold  and  dead — all  influence 
us.  The  mental  outlook  of  the  men  who  work 
in  a  factory  where  the  windows  are  clouded  with 
dirt  and  thick  smoke  is  affected  by  these  con- 
tinually disagreeable  features.  The  men  who 
work  with  products  that  are  pleasant  to  deal  with 
are  affected  favorably  by  those  products. 

I  suppose  the  coldest  and  deadest  job  must  be 
making  coins  in  a  mint,  because  coins  are  of  no 
value  in  themselves.  They  are  good  only  for 
exchange  and  they  are  not  used  for  any  creative 
purpose,  but  simply  passed  around  from  hand  to 
hand  until  they  are  worn  thin  by  the  handling  and 
must  go  back  to  be  remelted. 

It  is  not  so  much  in  these  things  that  the  effect 
of  the  work  is  important,  but  it  is  in  the  continuing 
mental  stimulus  that  comes  from  the  occupation. 
The  intimacies  of  human  association  grow  out 
of  our  occupation  and  the  problems  of  our  lives 
are  all  affected  by  the  conditions  of  the  occupation. 

A  Man's  Work  Is  His  Life. — Because  the  work 
is  bread  and  butter,  home,  family,  safety,  and  all 
those  things,  everything  connected  with  work  is 
important  to  the  whole  family.  Is  it  plentiful  or 
scarce?  Will  the  individual  man  like  it  sufficiently 
to  stay  at  it?     What  effect  will  it  have  on  his 


82  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

health?  The  companions  he  secures  because  of 
his  work,  the  possibility  of  advancement  through 
his  work — these  are  the  interesting  topics  of  con- 
versation in  all  families  and  among  all  groups  of 
workers. 

Work  is  not  merely  the  machine  at  which  I  am 
earning  a  living,  or  the  typewriter  which  carries 
the  woman  beyond  the  rent  day,  or  the  pick  and 
shovel  with  which  another  must  do  his  bit.  Work 
is  the  great  educator  for  most  men.  It  is  at  work 
that  he  learns  to  apply  the  little  knowledge  he  re- 
members from  school  days  and  he  begins  to  have 
some  idea  of  its  usefulness.  Whether  he  knows 
it  or  not,  the  work  which  he  is  doing  every  day — 
because  it  is  so  important  a  part  of  his  life — affects 
his  habit  of  thinking  and  his  habit  of  acting,  edu- 
cating him  by  the  force  of  its  necessary  demands 
upon  him  and  his  dependence  upon  it. 

Work,  therefore,  governs  the  most  important 
associations  in  the  worker's  life.  If  the  work  is 
limited  and  monotonous,  the  man  will  have  a 
tendency  to  view  everything  from  a  narrow  stand- 
point. If  nobody  pays  any  attention  to  him  and 
he  is  considered  a  part  of  the  machine,  he  will 
begin  to  see  life  from  that  point  of  view.  If 
he  doesn't  understand  the  work  and  no  one  helps 
him  out,  he  will  not  be  likely  to  understand  the 
broader  relations  of  his  life. 

Work  will  teach  him  anyway — good  or  bad — 
so  the  good  can  be  increased  immeasurably  if  the 
jobs  are  interpreted  to  him,  the  meaning  of  the 
work  shown  to  him,  and  he  is  taught  the  reason 


The  Foreman  and  the  Operators  83 

for  organization  and  its  value  to  him.  Work  is 
our  teacher.  Whether  it  turns  us  out  better  men 
depends  largely  upon  the  companions  we  have  to 
meet  in  our  work,  the  patience  of  those  who  teach 
us  our  work,  and  the  sympathy  and  tact  of  the 
men  who  govern  that  work.  Good  management 
can  make  work  a  greater  and  more  liberal  edu- 
cation for  all  workers ;  and  the  foreman  is  the  man 
who  has  an  enviable  opportunity  as  well  as  author- 
ity so  to  regulate  the  work  that  the  worker  will 
get  full  educative  values  out  of  it. 

Section  II 
The  Foreman  and  the  Operators 

Know  the  Worker  Apart  from  His  Job. — Al- 
though work  is  the  greatest  educational  factor  in 
the  life  of  most  men  and  intimately  affects  the 
whole  viewpoint  of  each  man  regarding  society, 
government,  and  his  neighbors,  the  man  rarely 
shows  his  whole  desire  or  his  whole  nature  at 
his  work.  To  know  him  as  a  man  it  is  necessary 
to  know  him  outside  of  his  operations  in  the 
shop,  the  factory  or  the  yard.  There  are  many 
things  which  may  sting  him  internally  that  will 
not  come  out  in  his  conversation  until  he  has  put 
a  safe  distance  between  himself  and  his  work. 
There  are  many  things  he  can  do  which  his  work 
has  not  given  him  an  opportunity  to  try  out.  These 
things  all  affect  his  attitude  toward  his  work. 

I  am  acquainted  with  a  company  which  has  spent 
a  good  many  years  trying  to  get  the  point  of  view 


84  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

of  the  workers  by  giving  them  an  opportunity  to 
express  themselves,  in  order  to  find  out  if  the  work 
can  be  made  a  pleasure  as  well  as  a  source  of  living 
for  them.  There  was  in  one  of  the  shops  a  man 
of  Polish  birth,  who  was  accounted  a  radical  and 
rather  a  fair  agitator.  Several  times  he  had  been 
reported  as  the  originator  of  trouble.  He  was 
spoken  of  as  restless  and  discontented.  The  man 
in  active  charge  of  the  workers'  meetings  decided 
to  talk  things  over  with  him.  It  was  a  difficult 
job,  for  the  man  was  suspicious  to  the  last  degree. 
He  did  not  believe  in  the  company  and  he  had 
been  given  a  bad  name  which  he  felt  was  unjust. 
He  therefore  had  a  grievance  and  was  inclined 
to  nurse  it. 

Finally,  the  man  who  was  in  charge  of  the 
workers  got  pretty  well  acquainted  with  this  so- 
called  radical  and  they  talked  together  a  great 
deal.  A  representative  of  the  management  visited 
the  man's  home  and  found  out  that  he  spent  most 
of  his  evenings  studying  a  correspondence  school 
course  in  mechanical  engineering.  Sometimes  he 
felt  that  he  was  getting  along  all  right,  but  the 
difficulties  of  the  lessons  made  him  thoroughly 
discouraged.  The  trouble  was  that  he  did  not 
have  enough  public  school  education  as  a  founda- 
tion. He  was  of  an  active,  restless  turn  of  mind, 
impatient  with  obstacles  and  very  desirous  of 
progress.  The  difficulty  of  advancing  in  his 
studies  had  soured  his  disposition  and  induced  him 
to  become  one  of  a  body  of  radicals — restless 
people  like  himself. 


The  Foreman  and  the  Operators  85 

The  representative  of  the  management  took  it 
upon  himself  to  act  as  this  man's  adviser.  He 
found  night  schools  in  which  he  could  receive  in- 
struction. He  took  an  interest  in  the  man's  prog- 
ress. Now,  this  former  radical  is  a  representative 
of  the  workers  at  the  shop  committee  meetings. 
He  is  a  believer  in  the  company  and  he  is  going 
forward  in  skill  and  usefulness.  It  was  not  until 
the  representative  of  the  management  got  to  the 
man  outside  of  the  shop  and  made  a  friend  of  him 
that  he  found  out  what  the  trouble  was  and  how 
to  solve  it. 

A  company  in  New  York  state  found  out  that 
a  good  many  accidents  occurred  to  the  workmen 
who  had  sickness  in  their  families  or  some  other 
domestic  difficulty.  They  were  thinking  about 
their  troubles  at  home  and  that  was  the  cause  of 
their  inattention  to  work. 

These  instances  could  be  multiplied  a  great 
many  times;  and  each  case  would  show  that  the 
particular  circumstances  of  the  man's  social  life 
and  matters  connected  with  his  home  or  his  sur- 
roundings are  more  frequently  responsible  for 
restlessness  and  misunderstanding  than  the  dislike 
for  his  work. 

We  are  constantly  saying  that  lots  of  men  are 
misplaced  in  their  work.  They  are  doing  the 
kind  of  work  which  is  not  most  agreeable  to  them 
because  they  happened  to  drift  into  it  and  have 
been  unable  to  find  a  way  out.  But  you  are  not 
going  to  find  out  what  a  man  would  like  to  do  and 
what  he  might  prove  very  capable  of  doing  unless 


86  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

you  know  the  man  apart  from  his  work.  The 
average  man  is  not  inclined  to  tell  you  about  these 
things  unless  he  is  pretty  sure  that  he  will  not  be 
laughed  at  and  that  his  confidence  will  be  re- 
spected. So  the  man-part  of  the  worker  is  always 
more  important  than  the  work-part,  and  it  is  a 
more  difficult  part  to  understand.  Nevertheless, 
the  man's  skill  as  a  worker  and  his  value  in  his 
work  are  dependent  upon  his  thinking  and  feeling 
as  a  man — his  ambitions,  his  disposition,  his  home 
surroundings,  and  his  economic  circumstances. 
The  foreman  must  know  his  workers  as  men, 
apart  from  their  jobs. 

The  Wonders  of  Mechanical  Operations. — Not 
long  ago,  an  engineer,  who  has  traveled  all  over 
the  world  and  delved  into  the  mysteries  of  differ- 
ent industrial  developments,  said  he  hoped  that 
some  day  a  writer  would  arise  who  would  be  able 
to  show  us  the  romance  of  industry;  that  the  way 
in  which  all  these  different  processes  were  devel- 
oped in  order  to  make  a  nail,  or  a  shoe,  or  an 
automobile  more  quickly  and  for  less  money  than 
they  were  made  before  would  make  material  for 
a  story  more  entrancing  than  the  best  novel 
written. 

To  me,  the  factory  has  been  at  all  times  a 
wonderful  place.  Although  I  have  worked  for 
days  at  a  time  at  machine  operation,  I  have  never 
been  able  to  get  over  the  sense  of  wonder  at  the 
mechanism  which  takes  a  piece  of  metal  and  per- 
forms a  half  dozen  simultaneous  operations  on  it, 


The  Foreman  and  the  Operators  87 

with  an  accuracy  that  is  more  than  human  and  a 
speed  that  is  surely  uncanny. 

I  have  stopped  many  times  in  a  textile  factory 
just  to  see  the  mechanical  fingers  come  down  and 
pick  up  the  thread  ends  and  tie  them  together; 
and  it  has  always  interested  me  to  stand  beside 
a  collating  machine  in  a  book  bindery  and  watch 
its  fingers  pick  out  the  groups  of  pages  for  the 
book  and  put  them  one  on  top  of  the  other,  accord- 
ing to  their  order,  so  that  they  could  be  put  into 
the  binding  machines. 

Whenever  I  pass  the  New  York  Herald  Build- 
ing, with  its  big  glass  windows  permitting  a  full 
view  of  the  press  room,  I  am  sure  to  find  an  inter- 
ested audience  watching  the  paper  entering  the 
giant  press  at  one  end  and  coming  out  at  the  other 
a  complete  newspaper,  printed,  folded,  and 
counted.  These  processes  are  wonderful;  and 
they  are  wonderful  because  the  thought  and  in- 
telligence and  good  workmanship  of  so  many 
thousands  of  men  have  gone  into  building  them 
efficiently. 

Sometimes  the  things  we  work  with  become  so 
familiar  that  we  forget  that  they  are  just  the 
product  of  the  brains  and  skillful  workmanship 
of  men,  and  that  few  things  are  useful  until  trans- 
formed by  the  intelligence  and  the  skill  which 
man  can  put  upon  them. 

We  Are  Heirs  of  the  Skill  of  the  Ages.— Your 
part  of  the  process  of  making  a  useful  article 
and  making  it  more  efficiently — no  matter  whether 
it  be  the  better  unloading  of  cars,  the  more  skillful 


88  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

handling  of  machine  operations,  the  development 
of  weaving,  or  the  more  accurate  and  careful 
attention  to  sewing — is  part  of  a  wonderful  co- 
operative process  of  making  useful  things  which 
has  evolved  out  of  the  knowledge,  the  study,  and 
the  patient  work  of  thousands  of  other  workers 
who  came  before  you. 

It  is  not  enough  to  know  the  man  who  is  work- 
ing in  your  group  as  a  man ;  you  should  also  know 
the  processes  which  are  undertaken  in  the  group 
over  which  you  have  supervision.  They  are  part 
of  the  technical  requirements  of  your  job.  They 
are  a  little  more  than  that,  however;  they  are  a 
part  of  the  human  story  of  the  industry  which  is 
being  developed  by  scores  of  other  workers  oper- 
ating in  just  such  cooperative  groups  and  adding 
their  wonderful  bit  to  the  amazing  total  of  the 
story  itself. 

If  the  worker  who  is  operating  a  machine  could 
understand  the  intelligent  study  which  was  put 
upon  the  design  by  the  engineers  who,  one  after 
the  other,  evolved  that  design;  by  the  workers  who 
made  the  machine  and  added  their  skill  to  its 
manufacture;  by  the  workers  who  used  it  and  dis- 
covered where  it  was  strong  and  where  it  was 
weak — they,  themselves,  aiding  largely  in  its  de- 
velopment by  their  own  experience  in  handling  it — 
would  he  not  be  interested? 

If  the  man  who  operates  the  machine  under- 
stood all  these  things,  the  machine  itself  would  be 
more  interesting  and  the  work  which  he  is  doing 
upon  it  would  be  more  valuable  in  his  eyes.     Here 


The  Foreman  and  the  System  89 

are  some  things  which  you  can  do  as  foreman.  Get 
each  worker  interested  in  the  tools  with  which 
he  has  to  work,  and  the  kind  of  labor  which  went 
into  their  manufacture.  Get  him  interested 
in  the  examination  of  the  tool  as  he  uses 
it,  so  that  he  adds  his  valuable  suggestion  for 
its  development.  You  can  stir  him  to  a  love  for 
craftsmanship,  a  pride  in  his  job,  and  an  under- 
standing of  its  value,  when  well  done,  because 
every  process  in  modern  industry  contains  the  story 
of  patient  study,  careful  development,  and  thor- 
ough workmanship  by  thousands  of  men,  the  result 
of  whose  endeavors  is  placed  at  the  service  of  the 
worker  when  he  uses  the  tool  for  his  own  opera- 
tions. 

Every  man  in  every  industrial  establishment  is 
a  debtor  to  the  work  of  thousands  of  other  men 
for  his  operative  conveniences  and  tools;  and  his 
part  in  the  process  of  developing  new  tools  and 
implements  makes  other  men  debtors  to  him. 

Section  III 
The  Foreman  and  the  System 

Obligations  of  the  Group. — If  Smith  makes  up 
his  mind  to  build  a  little  bungalow  in  the  woods 
and  to  do  the  job  himself,  from  the  cutting  of 
the  lumber  to  the  finishing  of  the  proposition,  he 
can  work  on  his  own  time,  begin  when  he  feels 
like  it,  and  quit  when  he  is  ready.  Nobody  will 
have  any  kick  coming  about  the  whole  thing.  But 
if  Smith  and  Brown  and  Jones  decide  to  build  a 


90  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

bungalow  for  their  own  common  use  they  will 
have  to  work  together.  They  will  have  to  get 
together  and  decide  which  part  of  the  work  each 
will  perform  and  they  will  have  to  stick  to  their 
respective  parts  of  the  work.  They  will  be  obliged 
to  say  when  they  will  work  so  that  the  job  will  be 
kept  going  in  proper  order,  and  they  will  be 
obliged  to  agree  when  to  quit  work;  otherwise, 
confusion  and  discord  will  arise.  Brown,  let  us 
say,  is  doing  the  hauling  and  Smith  is  cutting  the 
lumber.  Brown  decides  that  he  feels  like  working 
this  morning  and  goes  around  to  haul  the  lumber, 
but  Smith  has  decided  to  take  a  day  off  and  no 
lumber  is  ready.  Before  very  long,  under  those 
conditions,  there  will  be  a  fight  and  no  useful 
work  will  be  accomplished.  There  will  be  no 
bungalow. 

So  long  as  each  man  made  every  part  of  the 
product  as  an  individual,  he  could  do  the  work 
in  his  own  home,  could  work  when  he  felt  like  it, 
and  get  the  job  done  when  he  was  ready.  That 
method  was  very  slow,  so  slow  that  it  was  able 
to  support  only  a  very  small  population.  There 
were  no  conveniences  because  they  were  so  hard 
to  make.  Just  as  soon  as  men  discovered  that  they 
could  work  faster  and  better  and  provide  them- 
selves with  more  conveniences  by  dividing  up  the 
work,  it  became  necessary  to  arrange  this  division 
so  that  there  would  be  no  confusion. 

Modern  Industry  Makes  Group  Work  Neces- 
sary.— The  progress  of  industry  has  brought  us 
to  the  point  where  the  very  demands  of  our  own 


The  Foreman  and  the  System  91 

conveniences  make  it  necessary  for  us  to  work  in 
groups,  with  a  general  system  provided  for  that 
work,  so  that  the  work  can  continue  in  an  orderly 
manner  without  confusion  and  without  unnecessary 
expense  and  difficulty.  The  systems  which  we 
have  in  industry  today  were  not  planned  from 
the  beginning,  on  paper,  for  the  theoretical  deter- 
mination of  the  work.  They  developed  gradually 
as  industrial  establishments  grew  large.  They 
were  found  to  be  necessary  to  avoid  the  confusion 
that  began  to  creep  in  when  the  larger  establish- 
ment tried  to  operate  along  the  lines  that  had  been 
valuable  for  the  smaller  plant. 

The  development  of  the  group  was  absolutely 
necessary  to  modern  industry.  You  and  I  could 
not  enjoy  any  of  the  modern  conveniences  if  we 
did  not  confine  ourselves  to  a  certain  definite  group 
of  workers  and  depend  upon  the  other  groups  to 
do  the  rest  of  the  work.  Of  course,  that  means 
that  we  must  work  with  the  other  groups  if  we  are 
to  have  all  the  conveniences  we  should  have  and 
avoid  extra  cost  and  hardship.  Just  as  soon  as 
some  of  the  groups  quit  work  or  do  not  work 
at  the  same  time  that  we  do,  we  get  into  the  same 
difficulty  which  hampered  Brown  and  Smith  in 
building  the  bungalow. 

Your  little  group  is  just  as  important  as  my 
little  group,  because  both  of  them  are  necessary 
to  the  building  of  our  bungalow.  You  may  think 
that  my  work  is  less  difficult  and  more  agreeable 
than  yours,  just  as  Smith  might  have  argued  that 
Brown  had  a  cinch  in  comparison  with  him;  and 


92  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

I  may  be  inclined  to  think  that  you  have  an  unfair 
advantage  of  me;  but  we  must  group  ourselves  in 
some  way  or  other,  and  we  must  continue  to  oper- 
ate in  these  groups,  otherwise  we  cannot  keep  the 
stream  of  necessities  flowing  to  the  places  needing 
them — the  home,  the  business,  the  community. 

Standardizing  Group  Work. — The  develop- 
ment of  the  group  specialization  meant,  of  course, 
the  development  of  group  operation.  The  same 
necessity  runs  through  the  group  operation  that 
runs  through  the  group  organization. 

Suppose  we  go  back  to  the  bungalow  which 
Smith,  Brown,  and  Jones  decided  to  build  for 
themselves  in  cooperation — Smith  was  to  do  the 
cutting  of  the  lumber  and  Brown  the  hauling,  you 
remember.  After  these  three  fellows  started 
work,  Smith  found  out  that  Brown  could  haul 
twice  as  fast  as  he  could  cut,  so  he  demanded 
another  man  to  help  do  the  cutting.  Jones,  who 
was  shaping  the  lumber  and  fitting  it,  found  that 
he  could  work  only  one-quarter  as  fast  as  Brown 
so  he  wanted  three  men  to  help  him.  Smith  and 
his  man  then  would  be  employed  on  group  work, 
and  Jones  and  his  three  men  would  be  on  group 
work.  Not  all  of  the  men  in  a  group  would  be 
doing  exactly  the  same  kind  of  work,  perhaps,  but 
all  would  be  doing  work  which  fitted  into  a  definite 
group  of  operations.     Here  is  another  example: 

In  a  chemical  mill  certain  minerals  are  ground, 
pulverized,  and  packed  in  bags  direct  from  the 
pulverizers.  There  are  six  distinct  operations  in 
the  process  of  packing,  viz. :  opening  the  bag,  fix- 


The  Foreman  and  the  System  93 

ing  it  on  the  mouth  of  the  pulverizer,  filling  it, 
removing  it,  fastening  it,  labeling  it.  There  is 
one  man  to  each  operation  for  each  mill.  These 
men  are  occupied  in  group  work;  for,  although 
each  is  doing  work  different  from  the  others,  all 
are  related  so  definitely  to  the  packing  of  the 
product  that  they  must  be  handled  as  a  group. 

The  foreman  is  the  supervisor  of  group  work 
and  the  group  work  is  the  essential  feature  of  co- 
operation in  the  development  of  modern  industry. 
All  group  work  must  be  conducted  by  the  group 
under  the  same  system,  the  same  regulations,  and 
the  same  standards  if  it  is  to  be  worth  while.  The 
group  would  be  just  as  slow  and  inefficient  as  the 
old  method  of  individual  work  if  it  were  not  stand- 
ardized. It  is  the  arrangement  of  the  work  with 
the  same  standards,  the  same  systems,  the  same 
methods  of  recording,  and  the  same  valuation 
which  makes  the  grouping  practical  and  free  from 
confusion. 

The  unit  piece  of  work  turned  out  by  the  indi- 
vidual worker  is  dependent  in  value  upon  the 
group  work.  In  packing  the  product  in  the  chem- 
ical mill,  for  example,  if  the  man  who  fills  the 
bags  does  a  good  job,  the  other  five  men  in  the 
group  must  do  an  equally  good  job  in  their  special 
operations  in  order  that  the  completed  job  may 
be  good. 

Benefits  of  Group  Work. — So,  first  and  last, 
the  foreman  must  govern  the  standard  of  group 
work,  both  in  quality  and  speed.  The  workers 
instinctively  know   this   and  the   tendency   is    for 


94  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

the  most  rapid  workers  to  lower  their  pace  to 
the  group  average.  It  requires  less  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  workers,  and  even  of  the  supervisor. 
It  is  a  much  harder  job  to  bring  the  whole  group 
up  to  the  requirements  of  the  more  skillful  than 
to  let  down  on  those  requirements.  Standardized 
group  work  calls  for  more  patience,  more  study 
of  the  men,  and  more  education  on  the  part  of  the 
foreman.  It  is  apt  to  be  discouraging  because  of 
this,  and  so  it  is  sometimes  neglected.  But,  ade- 
quate production  of  the  things  we  need  depends 
upon  the  development  and  coordination  of  group 
work  in  industry. 

A  group  of  men  working  together,  in  the  com- 
panionship which  comes  with  common  working 
problems,  can  swing  work  through  with  a  capacity 
that  is  impossible  in  the  lone  individual.  They 
can  develop  a  group  spirit  from  the  group  work 
which  will  give  them  greater  power  for  accom- 
plishment. To  do  this  they  must  appreciate  their 
dependence  upon  one  another;  make. use  of  the 
ways  in  which  they  can  benefit  each  other;  and 
rightly  estimate  the  value  of  the  work  they  are 
doing  in  the  group  to  which  they  belong. 

If  the  best  results  are  to  be  secured  in  produc- 
tion, with  harmony  and  efficiency,  the  worker  must 
understand  that  group  work  is  the  means  of  bring- 
ing those  results  to  pass.  He  will  then  also  under- 
stand that  group  work  is  the  reason  for  group 
organization,  and  that  group  organization  works 
for  the  benefit  of  the  group  as  a  whole  and  for 


The  Foreman  and  the  Work  95 

each  individual  in  it.  The  foreman  is  the  one  man 
who  can  rightly  organize  and  supervise  the  group. 
In  doing  that  he  serves,  not  only  the  group  and  its 
members,  but  also  himself. 


Section  IV 
The  Foreman  and  the  Work 

What  the  Job  Means  to  the  Foreman. — The 
job  to  the  foreman  means  two  things,  viz :  the  job 
which  the  worker  must  perform  under  his  super- 
vision, and  the  job  of  supervising  the  work.  Very 
often  we  think  of  these  as  one  and  the  same,  but 
they  are  not  the  same  by  any  means.  The  job 
which  the  worker  performs  is  the  physical  side  of 
the  matter.  It  may  be  unloading  cars,  shipping 
products,  turning  shafting,  weaving  cloth,  sewing 
garments,  or  a  thousand  other  things  in  the  won- 
derful process  of  useful  manufacture.  The  job  of 
supervising t  however,  means,  among  other  things : 
understanding  the  workers,  knowing  how  to  keep 
them  contented,  interesting  them  in  their  work,  in- 
structing them  in  their  need  for  skill,  interpreting 
to  them  the  organization  and  its  policy. 

Stated  in  that  way,  the  job  of  supervising  is 
quite  an  important  matter,  since  it  offers  abundant 
room  for  study  and  plenty  of  room  for  the  exer- 
cise of  intelligence.  Your  group  may  be  a  large 
one  and  my  group  may  be  small;  but,  after  all, 
industrial  improvement  depends  quite  a  good  deal 
upon  how  much  understanding  and  intelligence  you 


96  The  'Foreman  and  His  Job 

and  I  put  into  the  matter  of  knowing  the  group 
under  our  supervision  and  how  much  faith  that 
group  has  in  us — whether  the  group  be  large 
or  small. 

Some  years  ago,  a  small  advertising  agency  was 
run  by  one  of  the  able  men  in  that  line  of  business. 
Compared  wTith  concerns  of  the  same  kind  today, 
he  ran  a  very  small  place.  Not  more  than  fifteen 
people  were  employed  in  his  offices  at  one  time, 
whereas  three  or  four  hundred  are  to  be  found  in 
some  of  the  present-day  establishments.  The 
other  day,  a  group  of  advertising  men  were  discus- 
sing this  particular  man  and  figuring  out  what  had 
happened  to  his  employes.  They  got  a  sheet  of 
paper  and  wrote  down  their  records.  When  they 
were  through  it  was  discovered  that  90  per  cent 
of  those  employes  had  made  successes  for  them- 
selves in  advertising,  and  most  of  them  were  heads 
of  establishments  much  bigger  than  the  one  which 
trained  them. 

Our  Job  Is  as  Big  as  We  Make  It. — It  is  a 
pretty  big  job  to  understand  a  small  group  of  men 
and  work  with  them  so  that  they  like  to  work  in 
that  group;  so  that  they  become  skilled  in  their 
work  and  trustworthy  in  their  discharge  of  re- 
sponsibility. It  is  the  especial  privilege  of  the 
foreman  to  be  so  close  to  his  group  of  workers 
that  he  can  influence  them  greatly,  both  for  their 
own  improvement  and  for  the  betterment  of  the 
work.  This  is  the  vital  part  of  the  job  of  fore- 
man. 


The  Foreman  and  the  Work  97 

One  of  my  friends  went  through  the  Great  War 
as  a  private.  Not  long  ago  he  introduced  me  to 
the  sergeant  of  his  squad  with  great  pride.  He 
spoke  of  that  sergeant  afterwards  in  such  a  way 
that  I  became  almost  envious  of  the  man  who  was 
so  skilled  in  understanding  and  instructing  his 
fellowmen  that  they  would  pay  such  a  high  trib- 
ute to  his  character.  The  general  may  have  se- 
cured more  fame,  but  I  do  not  think  that  any  gen- 
eral won  as  much  affectionate  respect  as  was 
shown  to  that  sergeant  by  his  men.  It  is  this  inti- 
mate and  affectionate  respect  which  can  exist  be- 
tween the  foreman  and  his  group,  and  it  represents 
the  great  reward  which  can  come  to  the  super- 
visor who  understands  how  to  handle  the  human 
relations  in  his  job;  and  the  job  itself  is  only  as 
big  as  our  ideas  of  it. 

The  Bigness  of  Your  Job. — So  far  we  have  been 
trying  to  see  the  relation  between  the  foreman  and 
the  productive  effort  which  finally  accomplishes 
the  useful  work  of  industry.  What  does  all  this 
mean?  It  means  that  the  foreman  is  the  point 
of  contact  between  the  actual  work  and  the  plan- 
ning, the  system,  the  factory  management.  The 
designing  department  can  plan  what  is  to  be  done 
and  how,  the  factory  management  can  arrange  the 
tools  and  equipment,  the  officials  can  develop  the 
system  and  the  grouping — all  these  things  must  be 
done  and  continually  done;  but  they  are  of  no 
avail  unless  the  work  is  smoothly  carried  out  and 
supervised  with  good  judgment  and  intelligence. 


98  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Make  no  mistake — the  brains  and  intelligence 
of  these  other  departments  of  management  are 
part  of  the  great  work  of  keeping  these  useful 
industrial  processes  moving.  They  furnish  the 
strategy,  the  definite  plans,  and  the  operations  by 
which  normal  workers  may  have  employment  in 
the  actual  making  of  the  product.  They  must  not 
be  belittled  nor  misunderstood.  Their  work  is 
vital.  Let  us  remember,  also,  that  each  group  in 
industry  depends  upon  all  other  groups.  No  one 
group  can  do  the  whole  of  the  work  required  in 
the  process  of  making  useful  products,  and  the 
groups  which  are  under  the  supervision  of  the 
foremen  are  doing  their  part  in  the  actual  making 
of  the  product  in  its  physical  form.  This  means 
that  the  small  size  of  the  group  under  the  fore- 
man's charge  and  the  intimate  cooperative  char- 
acter of  that  work  enable  the  foreman  to  exercise 
an  influence  inestimably  important  in  the  relation 
of  the  man  to  the  job,  the  worker  to  the  work,  and 
the  team  to  the  team  leader. 

The  job  of  being  a  foreman  has  many  difficul- 
ties, and  no  man  can  say  that  it  does  not  require 
brain  power,  intelligence,  and  understanding.  All 
these  are  necessary,  but  the  good  will  and  confi- 
dence of  the  men  furnish  the  greatest  satisfaction 
which  can  be  secured  from  such  work.  No  part 
of  your  job  is  unimportant.  Every  let  down  in 
efficiency,  every  grievance,  every  disturbance  in- 
terrupts the  work  of  production  and  compels  so- 
ciety to  pay  more  for  your  product  with  less  money 
to  pay  with.     Not  only  that,  but  the  worker  de- 


The  Foreman  and  the  Work  99 

pends  upon  the  supervisor  of  his  work  to  such 
a  degree  that  foremen  have  in  their  hands  the 
power  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  worker 
more  than  any  other  single  group  of  men. 

77  Is  Easier  to  Lead  Than  to  Drive  Men. — A 
man  who  has  never  had  a  strike  in  his  plant,  in 
thirty-five  years  of  operation,  said:  "It  is  compara- 
tively easy  to  drive  a  horse  with  harness,  blinders, 
and  a  whip.  A  little  technical  skill  in  holding  the 
reins,  some  patience,  and  knowledge  of  the  ani- 
mal's nature  will  make  a  good  driver.  It  is  a  dif- 
ferent matter,  however,  to  lead  a  horse  without  a 
bridle  or  harness  or  whip.  The  horse  must  know 
you  and  have  some  real  regard  for  you  before  he 
will  follow  you.  There  are  many  thousands  of 
men  driving  horses,  but  there  are  very  few  men 
leading  horses,  even  with  a  halter. 

It  is  comparatively  easy  to  drive  a  group  of 
men,  when  they  are  afraid  of  losing  their  jobs  and 
don't  know  where  to  get  others.  It  is  not  so  hard 
to  keep  men  engaged  in  their  work  if  you  know 
when  the  work  is  well  done  or  not  well  done,  and 
if  you  know  how  to  establish  such  a  confidence 
and  respect  that  they  will  work  for  you  with  all 
their  interest,  their  might,  and  their  intelligence. 

A  foreman  may  be  a  foreman  if  he  knows  the 
work  and  does  not  entirely  neglect  the  worker; 
but  he  can  be  a  leader  of  his  group,  getting  their 
full  cooperation,  if  he  understands  the  men,  is 
patient  with  them,  and  develops  their  faith  in  his 
squareness  and  sincerity.  That,  after  all,  is  the 
great  job  of  being  a  foreman. 


100  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Questions  for  You  to  Answer 

1.  State  the  three  ways  in  which  time  is  spent. 

2.  What  are  the  forms  of  useless  labor? 

3.  Describe  an  Order  of  Work  sheet. 

4.  In  what  two  ways  can  the  foreman  reduce 
idleness? 

5.  How  is  the  cost  of  an  article  made  up? 

6.  What  items  must  be  included  in  the  cost  of 
running  a  plant? 

7.  What  items  must  be  included  in  the  selling 
price  of  an  article? 

8.  What    are    the    causes    of    idleness    of    ma- 
chinery? 

9.  What     four     things     influence     quality     of 
product? 

10.  Name  the  educative  values  of  work. 

11.  Why  should  you  know  your  workmen  apart 
from  their  work? 

12.  Why  is  group  work  necessary? 

13.  Name    some    benefits    derived    from    group 
work. 

14.  What  are  some  of  the  opportunities  given 
to  a  foreman  who  rightly  manages  his  job? 

15.  What  is  your  judgment  as  to  leading  or  driv- 
ing the  men  who  work  in  your  group? 


Chapter  3 


Part  I 
METHODS  OF  GETTING  PRODUCTION 


Part  II 
THE  FOREMAN  AND  LABOR 


Part  I :    The  Job 

METHODS  OF  GETTING  PRODUCTION 

Section  I 
Getting  Things  Done  on  Time 

How  One  Foreman  Woke  Up. — As  he  closed 
the  door  behind  him,  Frank  Skinner  gave  a  sigh 
of  relief  and  said  to  himself,  "It's  too  bad,  but 
it  had  to  be  done."  Three  strides  took  him  from 
the  door  to  the  window  and  he  stood  there  look- 
ing out.  Skinner  was  the  foreman  of  a  good 
sized  department  and  this  was  his  office — at  least 
he  called  it  his  office  although  his  men  referred 
to  it  as  "the  cage"  because  it  was  only  a  space 
seven  feet  wide  by  ten  feet  long  surrounded  by 
"chicken  wire." 

Skinner  had  just  fired  Tim  McQuade  and  was 
rather  pleased  with  himself  for  not  losing  his 
temper;  but  as  he  looked  out  of  the  window  he 
realized  that,  although  he  had  stood  for  a  bawling 
out  without  getting  mad,  he  had  done  the  thing 
he  had  no  intention  of  doing — he  had  fired  a  good 
man. 

Tim  McQuade  was  a  good  lathe  hand  and 
thoroughly  used  to  the  work,  but  of  late  he  had 
been  discontented  and  grouchy  and  the  men 
around  him  seemed  to  be  discontented  too,  largely 
due  to  his  influence. 

As  Skinner  went  to  the  other  end  of  his  shop 
this  particular  afternoon,  hunting  for  some  ma- 


104  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

terial  that  could  not  be  found,  he  had  run  across 
McQuade  sitting  on  the  window  sill  talking  to  two 
other  men  and  smoking  a  cigarette.  There  was 
a  strict  rule  against  smoking  in  the  shop,  and  he 
had  given  McQuade  a  piece  of  his  mind.  Mc- 
Quade had  come  back  with  such  a  jumble  of  com- 
plaints and  sarcastic  criticism  that  Skinner  had 
fired  him,  knowing  that  if  he  listened  three  min- 
utes longer  he  would  knock  him  down. 

For  the  next  two  days  Skinner  thought  a  good 
deal  about  Tim  McQuade  and  sorted  out  his 
jumble  of  complaints  into  their  logical  order, 
which  was  somewhat  as  follows : 

Tim  McQuade  had  been  transferred  from  an- 
other department  where  he  had  been  turning  out 
work  of  a  fairly  simple  nature;  there  had  been 
little  trouble  with  it  and  he  had  been  able  to  make 
pretty  good  wages.  Because  he  was  considerably 
above  the  average  man  in  ability,  he  had  been 
transferred  to  this  department  and  given  much 
more  difficult  work.  The  piece  rates  were  gen- 
erous and  he  would  have  been  able  to  make  much 
higher  wages  than  in  the  other  department  if  it 
had  not  been  for  the  things  which  prevented  him 
from  doing  a  full  day's  work.  He  could  not  get 
his  cutters  sharpened  properly  or  keep  enough  of 
them  on  hand;  he  had  to  spend  a  good  deal  of 
time  going  back  and  forth  to  the  tool  room.  The 
foreman  of  the  tool  room  of  his  own  department 
had  become  so  used  to  McQuade's  complaints 
that  little  attention  was  given  to  them.  Some 
weeks  his  jobs  were  so  short  that  he  spent  almost 


Getting  Things  Done  on  Time  105 

half  his  time  setting  up  his  machine.  He  had  often 
asked  for  a  man  to  help  him  on  set-ups  but  there 
was  no  one  available.  He  spoiled  some  work 
because  he  had  no  gauges  and  a  good  deal  more 
because  his  machine  was  so  badly  worn  that  it 
could  not  work  to  close  limits.  For  the  same  rea- 
son he  could  not  take  off  very  much  material  at  a 
time,  and  some  jobs  took  much  longer  to  do  than 
they  should.  His  machine  was  frequently  down 
for  repairs  and  the  repair  men  were  so  tired  of 
attempting  to  patch  up  a  worn-out  machine  that 
they  put  every  possible  job  ahead  of  it.  Much 
of  the  work  McQuade  did  was  special  and  it  took 
a  good  deal  of  time  for  the  office  to  issue  orders ; 
as  a  result  he  was  frequently  idle  while  he  waited 
for  the  orders  to  come  through  or  for  material  to 
arrive. 

When  his  machine  was  down  for  repairs  or  he 
was  waiting  for  tools,  orders,  or  material,  he  had 
to  sweep  the  floor,  count  parts,  or  do  nothing.  He 
considered  sweeping  beneath  his  dignity  and, 
when  he  was  idle,  he  bothered  the  other  men 
around  him.  When  he  was  not  operating  his  own 
lathe,  he  was,  of  course,  paid  only  his  day  rate 
and,  as  a  result,  his  weekly  wages  were  too  small 
for  him  to  live  on.  McQuade  had  a  wife,  and 
three  children  he  was  trying  to  keep  in  school; 
rents  were  high,  food  was  expensive,  and  clothes 
were  almost  prohibitive.  He  was  discouraged  with 
the  struggle  to  make  both  ends  meet  and  evidently 
sore  at  the  foreman  who  made  it  impossible  for 
him  to  make  a  decent  living.  He  was  not  a  well- 
educated  man  and  could  not  place  the  responsi- 


106  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

bility  where  it  belonged — all  he  did  was  to  blame 
his  "boss"  for  everything.  This  particular  day 
he  had  been  waiting  for  three  hours  for  something 
to  do  and,  as  he  sat  on  the  window  sill  talking  to 
two  other  men,  he  had  lit  a  cigarette ;  just  then  the 
foreman  had  come  along  and  given  him  a  "call 
down,"  and  he  had  lost  his  temper,  spilled  out  all 
his  grievances,  and  had  been  fired. 

Skinner  turned  over  this  matter  in  his  mind  and 
looked  at  it  from  several  angles.  Here  was  an 
operator  who  had  not  been  kept  busy  and  yet  his 
department  was  falling  farther  and  farther  behind 
in  the  delivery  of  the  particular  kind  of  orders 
this  man  had  been  working  on.  The  superin- 
tendent had  also  been  telling  Skinner  that  his 
costs  on  this  kind  of  work  were  higher  than  they 
ought  to  be.  He  singled  out  the  reasons  why 
McQuade  had  not  been  kept  busy.  He  recalled 
that  on  several  occasions  the  material  had  not 
come  through  from  the  storeroom  or  some  other 
department  at  the  expected  time;  he  had  had  a 
good  deal  of  defective  material  which  should  have 
been  discovered  by  the  inspectors ;  he  had  been  idle 
when  his  machine  was  down  for  repairs  and  while 
he  waited  for  orders.  The  more  he  thought  about 
the  matter  the  more  he  realized  that  a  great  part 
of  the  responsibility  for  McQuade's  discontent 
was  up  to  himself,  the  foreman.  Did  he  have 
a  shop  which  guaranteed  fair  play  and  equality 
of  opportunity?  A  week  ago  he  would  have  said 
"Yes,"  but  McQuade's  temper  and  the  outcome 
had  put  a  doubt  in  his  mind. 


Getting  Things  Done  on  Time  107 

A  few  days  later  Skinner  made  up  his  mind 
that  he  would  run  his  department  so  well  and  see 
that  his  men  were  so  fairly  treated  that  there 
would  be  no  reason  for  the  discontent  which  every 
now  and  then  showed  itself.  There  were  many 
things  with  which  he  was  not  satisfied  but  which 
he  had  let  go  because  they  had  always  been  done 
that  way.  Now  he  determined  that  he  would 
get  at  the  facts  about  his  shop  and  not  guess  at 
things  and  that  he  would  not  be  satisfied  with 
anything  but  the  best  methods,  He,  therefore, 
developed  methods  of  getting  work  done  on  time 
and  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  men  and  the  manage- 
ment.   Those  methods  are  given  in  this  book. 

The  Chief  Responsibilities  of  the  Foreman. 
When  a  foreman  takes  charge  of  any  part  of  a 
shop  he  accepts  two  chief  responsibilities : 

1.  To  fill  his  orders  as  rapidly  as  possible  and 
in  the  proper  sequence. 

2.  To  operate,  as  far  as  possible,  every  ma- 
chine when  there  is  work  for  it  to  do. 

By  the  word  "machine''  is  meant  whatever 
equipment  is  used  to  do  the  work.  Where  there 
are  no  machines  it  is  the  foreman's  responsibility 
to  keep  his  men  busy  whenever  there  is  work  for 
them  to  do.  It  is  not  easy  for  the  foreman  to 
realize  the  importance  of  these  two  responsibili- 
ties; and,  when  he  does  realize  their  importance, 
he  is  confronted  by  the  fact  that  frequently  he  is 
not  given  information  about  his  orders  with  suffi- 


108  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

cicnt  exactness  to  enable  him  to  get  them  out  in  the 
proper  sequence.  Moreover,  in  many  plants  there 
is  no  mechanism  by  which  he  can  plan  the  work  for 
his  machines  so  that  he  may  know  with  certainty, 
any  day,  whether  or  not  the  machines  will  be  oper- 
ated the  following  day. 

The  first  step  the  foreman  takes  is  to  find  out 
exactly  how  much  of  the  time  his  machines  are 
running.  Of  course  he  remembers  what  machines 
have  been  down  during  the  last  few  days ;  but  he 
cannot  recall,  in  many  cases,  how  long  they  were 
down  or  why.  He  needs  accurate  information 
presented  to  him  so  clearly  that  he  can  grasp  the 
facts  in  regard  to  his  department  as  a  whole. 

Daily  Idle  Machine  Report. — The  foreman 
has  one  of  his  assistants  walk  through  the  depart- 
ment each  morning,  soon  after  the  shop  starts  up, 
and  note  down  on  a  Daily  Idle  Machine  Report 
(see  page  109)  the  numbers  of  the  machines  which 
are  not  running,  with  the  time  shown  under  the 
"reason  why"  they  are  stopped.  Later  in  the  day, 
when  a  machine  starts  up  he  shows  the  time  in  the 
column  headed  "Started,"  and  when  other  ma- 
chines stop  during  the  day  he  adds  them  to  the  list. 
This  is  a  very  simple  record  to  keep ;  in  fact,  it  is 
so  simple  that  it  does  not  help  the  foreman  to 
visualize  his  shop,  so  he  has  the  information  trans- 
ferred to  a  chart. 


Getting  Things  Done  on  Time 


109 


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DAILY  IDLE  MACHINR  DFOOBT 

4 

Figure  2 


110 


The  Foreman  and  His  Job 


Machine  Record  Chart. — Since  time  is  the  most 
important  consideration  in  running  a  shop,  and  is 
the  one  element  common  to  all  work,  the  foreman 
has  a  sheet  ruled  by  hours  of  his  working  day  or 
week.  If  he  works  an  eight-hour  day,  he  has  each 
wide  column,  which  represents  a  day,  ruled  off  into 
four  narrower  columns,  each  representing  two 
hours.  If  he  works  a  nine-hour  day,  he  rules  the 
day  off  into  four  wide  spaces  of  two  hours  each 
and  one  narrower  space  representing  one  hour. 


MON 


TUES. 


Figure    3 

This  ruling  is  indicated  in  Figure  3,  which  is  a 
section  from  the  Machine  Record  Chart,  Figure 
4,  facing  page  113. 

On  the  left  side  of  this  chart  he  lists  all  the 
machines  in  his  department,  arranging  them  in 
groups.  At  the  top  of  each  group  he  leaves  a  space 
for  the  total  of  that  group.     At  the  top  of  the 


Getting  Things  Done  on  Time  111 

sheet  he  leaves  a  space  for  the  total  of  the  de- 
partment. Opposite  each  machine  number  he  in- 
dicates whether  or  not  the  machine  has  been  run- 
ning by  drawing  a  light  line  through  the  time  dur- 
ing which  the  machine  ran.  A  blank  space  indi- 
cates that  the  machine  did  not  run,  and  in  that 
space  he  places  a  letter  or  symbol  to  indicate  the 
reason  why.  Under  the  light  line  he  draws  a 
heavy  line  to  indicate  the  cumulative  running  time 
of  the  machine  for  the  whole  week.  The  length 
of  this  heavy  line  is  always  equal  to  the  sum  of  the 
light  lines  for  the  various  days.  The  running 
time  of  the  individual  machines  in  a  group  is 
averaged,  and  the  light  and  heavy  lines  entered 
for  the  group  total.  In  the  same  way  the  groups 
are  averaged  to  get  the  total  running  time  of  the 
shop,  and  the  lines  to  indicate  this  are  drawn  at 
the  top  of  the  sheet. 

In  this  chart  the  foreman  has  a  graphic  record 
of  the  running  of  his  machines,  which  enables  him 
to  visualize  his  problem  and  to  grasp  the  facts 
and  the  tendencies  much  more  firmly  than  he  could 
from  any  written  record  or  from  watching  the 
machines.  Moreover,  the  chart  emphasizes, 
above  everything  else,  the  reasons  for  the  idleness 
of  machines,  and  those  reasons  indicate  very 
clearly  who  is  responsible  for  the  idleness.  It  is 
at  this  point  that  the  foreman  translates  the  chart 
into  action.  He  eliminates  as  much  as  possible  of 
the  idleness  for  which  he  or  his  subordinates  are 
responsible.  If  machines  have  been  "waiting  for 
set-up,"  he  plans  the  work  of  his  set-up  men  more 


112  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

carefully?  and,  if  necessary,  trains  an  additional 
set-up  man.  If  machines  are  "idle  for  repairs, " 
he  does  all  he  can  to  push  the  completion  of  the 
repairs. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  idleness  of  machines 
appears  to  be  due  to  causes  over  which  the  fore- 
man has  no  control,  so  he  takes  the  matter  up 
with  his  immediate  superior,  who  may  possibly 
be  the  superintendent.  He  shows  the  charts  to 
him  and  asks  for  his  assistance  in  avoiding  further 
idleness.  If  machines  are  down  for  "lack  of 
help,"  the  superintendent  gets  better  cooperation 
from  the  Employment  Department  or  raises  the 
wages  offered.  If  idleness  is  due  to  "lack  of 
tools,"  the  superintendent  takes  the  matter  up 
with  the  foreman  of  the  tool  room. 

If  the  trouble  is  "lack  of  orders,"  he  takes  it 
up  with  the  Sales  Department.  In  each  case  the 
reason  for  the  idleness  is  made  clear  and  the  mat- 
ter taken  up  with  the  one  who  caused  it.  In  any 
event,  the  only  way  for  the  foreman  to  be  sure 
that  his  machines  will  be  run  any  certain  day  is 
to  assign  work  to  them  not  later  than  the  after- 
noon of  the  day  before.  This  he  does  on  an 
Order  of  Work  sheet  as  described  in  Chapter  2. 


TiRDAPTMRNT 

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A.B.C.  &  CO. 

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Figure  4.     For  explanation  see  pages  110-113. 


Getting  Things  Done  on  Time  113 

Key  to  Machine  Record  Chart  (Ganlt). — The 
following  key  explains  the  lines  and  letters  on 
the  Machine  Record  Chart,  Figure  4,  facing  this 
page: 

I  Width   of   daily   space    represents 
working  hours  of  the  plant. 

Time  machine  was  running. 

^^iiB-  Weekly    total    of    individual    ma- 
chine. 

mi ■■!■■, in  Weekly  total  of  group  of  machines. 

HBBHB  Weekly   total   of   all   machines   in 
department. 

The  portion  of  the  daily  space  through  which 
no  line  is  drawn  represents  the  time  the  machine 
was  idle.  Reasons  for  idleness  are  indicated  as 
follows : 

E.    Waiting  for  set-up.      P.    Lack  of  power. 

H.   Lack  of  help.  R.    Repairs. 

M.  Lack  of  material.         T.   Lack  of  tools. 

O.    Lack  of  orders.  V.    Holiday. 

W7here  there  is  more  than  one  reason  for  idle- 
ness, the  reason  entered  on  the  chart  is  determined 
by  asking  questions  in  the  following  order : 

R.    Is  the  machine  ready  to  run? 

O.    Is  there  an  order  for  the  machine  ? 

M.  Is  the  material  ready  to  be  worked  on? 

T.    Are  there  tools  ? 

P.     Is  there  power  to  run  the  machine  ? 

H.    Is  there  an  operator  for  the  machine? 

Not   all  of  the   foregoing   reasons    are   entered   on    Figure  4. 
They   are  not  necessary  on  this  particular  chart. 


114  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Summary  of  Machine  Record  Chart. — In  order 
to  keep  before  him  the  progress  of  his  depart- 
ment as  a  whole,  the  foreman  prepares  a  "Sum- 
mary of  Machine  Record  Chart"  (Figure  6),  on 
which  he  shows  the  records,  week  by  week,  for  six 
months.  On  this  he  indicates,  by  means  of  heavy 
lines,  the  per  cent  of  his  machine  capacity  which 
he  has  used,  and,  in  figures,  the  total  number  of 
hours  of  idleness  and  how  much  of  it  is  due  to  each 
of  the  various  causes.  The  foreman  gives  this 
chart  to  his  superintendent,  at  weekly  intervals,  as 
a  report  of  the  progress  he  is  making  in  eliminat- 
ing idleness  of  machines  in  his  department. 

Delay  Reports. — In  most  shops  hardly  a  day 
passes  that  the  foreman  does  not  realize  that 
there  is  work  to  be  done  which  it  is  impossible  for 
him  to  do  for  reasons  over  which  he  has  no  con- 
trol. So  he  lists  these  jobs  on  a  Delay  Report 
(Figure  5,  page  115).  On  the  left  side  of  the 
sheet  he  lists  the  order  numbers  and  adds  what- 
ever information  is  necessary  as  to  part  names 
and  operations.  He  then  writes  down  the  reason 
for  the  delay  and  the  date  on  which  he  expects  to 
start  each  order.  This  report  is  made  out  in 
triplicate — the  first  copy  white,  the  second  yellow 
and  the  third  blue.  The  foreman  sends  the  white 
and  yellow  copies  to  the  superintendent  as  a 
formal  request  for  assistance  to  overcome  ob- 
stacles which  it  is  not  within  his  power  to  remove ; 
and  the  superintendent  is  usually  able  to  remove 
a  great  many  of  these  obstacles.  Opposite  each 
item  the  superintendent  indicates  the  proper  ac- 


Getting  Things  Done  on  Time 


115 


116  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

tion  and  returns  the  white  copy  to  the  foreman, 
keeping  the  yellow  copy.  This  Delay  Report 
saves  the  superintendent  a  great  deal  of  time  and 
trouble  because  it  brings  to  his  attention  the  prob- 
lems on  which  his  help  is  most  needed  and  he 
does  not  have  to  go  around  the  shop  asking  people 
what  is  wrong  and  frequently  finding  out  only 
when  it  is  too  late. 

In  some  shops  the  superintendent  thinks  that 
when  he  has  sent  an  order  to  the  shop  his  respon- 
sibility is  practically  at  an  end.  It  is  evident,  how- 
ever, that  the  superintendent,  with  his  greater  ex- 
perience and  larger  authority,  can  be  of  most 
service  in  advancing  production  by  helping  the 
foreman  overcome  the  obstacles  with  which  he  is 
daily  confronted.  These  obstacles  are  brought 
to  his  attention  on  the  Order  of  Work  sheets  and 
Delay  Reports. 

The  Machine  Record  Chart,  the  Order  of 
Work,  and  the  Delay  Report  provide  the  fore- 
man with  a  means  of  visualizing,  not  only  what 
his  machines  are  doing,  today,  but  also  what  they 
should  do  tomorrow. 

Section  II 
Visualizing  the  Progress  of  Work 

The  Mechanism  of  Production  Records. — In 
the  ordinary  shop  there  is  great  difficulty  in  mak- 
ing out  an  Order  of  Work  or  a  Delay  Report, 
such  as  has  been  described.  Few  shops  are  or- 
ganized in  such  a  manner  as  to  enable  the  fore- 


DEPARTMENT              DAY  FOPCP 

A.B.C.&C0. 

PRODUCTIVE  MACHINES 

PER  CENT  OF  CAPACITY   USED 
io      20      30      ao      so      eo      70      so      90 

DETAILS  OF  IDLENESS  DUE  TO                     j 

TOTAL 
HOURS  OF 
IDLENESS 

WAITING 

FOR 
SET-UP 

LACK 

OF 
HELP 

LACI\ 
OF 

MATERIAL 

LACK 

OF 

ORDERS 

LACK 

OF 

POWER 

REPAIRS 

LACK 

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TOOLS 

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«'     27 

"~                                                            SUMMARY   OF  MACHINE  RECORD 

Figure  6.    For  explanation  see  page  114. 


Visualizing  the  Progress  of  Work         117 

man  or  his  assistant  to  do  this  work  readily  or 
regularly.  The  foreman  must  therefore  be  pro- 
vided with  such  a  mechanism  as  will  enable  him 
through  his  Order  of  Work  sheets  to  advise  the 
superintendent  as  to  his  plans  and  their  accom- 
plishment, and  through  his  Delay  Reports  to  re- 
quest whatever  assistance  he  may  need. 

This  mechanism  consists  of  Shop  Orders,  a 
Layout  Sheet,  Production  Cards,  Man  Record 
Charts,  etc.  It  is  a  simple  and  dependable  method 
of  keeping  track  of  orders  and  work  done. 

What  Shop  Orders  Must  Show. — First  of  all, 
the  foreman  must  have  orders  from  the  superin- 
tendent's office  telling  him  what  work  is  to  be 
done.     It  is  desirable  to  have  these  orders  show: 

What  is  to  be  done  (the  details  of  what  and 
how  may  be  shown  on  blue  prints  or  in 
writing) . 

The  number  of  pieces  to  be  made. 

The  material  to  be  used. 

The  date  the  work  should  be  completed. 
If  more  than  one  operation  is  to  be  performed 
on  an  order  in  his  department,  the  foreman  will 
write  on  the  order  the  various  operations.  If 
they  do  not  come  to  him  in  duplicate,  he  will  make 
out  a  second  copy  so  that  he  can  file  one  set  by 
order  number  and  another  set  according  to  the 
machine  on  which  the  first  operation  is  to  be  done. 
When  that  operation  is  completed,  he  checks  it 
off  and  files  the  order  to  the  machine  on  which 
the  next  operation  is  to  be  done.  From  the  file 
arranged  by   machine   numbers   he   gets   the    in- 


118  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

formation  necessary  for  making  out  his  Order  of 
Work  and  Delay  Report. 

On  the  back  of  the  orders  filed  by  order  num- 
bers he  enters  receipts  of  material,  the  number  of 
pieces  done  each  day  on  each  operation,  and  his 
deliveries  to  the  next  department.  From  this  file 
he  answers  questions  in  regard  to  the  progress 
of  work  on  orders. 

The  Layout  of  Jobs. — In  order  to  make  out  an 
Order  of  Work  sheet,  the  foreman  goes  over  his 
file  of  orders  arranged  by  machine  numbers;  but 
he  finds  his  planning  difficult,  because  he  cannot 
visualize  the  time  required  to  do  the  various  jobs. 
He  therefore  writes  on  the  Shop  Orders,  opposite 
each  operation,  the  time  it  will  require  to  do  the 
work,  and  finds  out  when  he  will  receive  the  ma- 
terial if  it  is  not  already  on  hand.  The  foreman 
then  takes  a  sheet,  ruled  by  hours,  similar  to  the 
one  on  which  he  has  drawn  the  Machine  Record 
Chart,  and  lays  out  the  orders  graphically  on  that 
sheet.  Figure  7,  page  120,  shows  a  Layout  Sheet. 
The  key  to  it  is  on  page  121. 

On  the  left  side  of  this  sheet,  he  lists  the  ma- 
chines as  he  did  on  the  Machine  Record  Chart. 
Opposite  each  machine  he  draws  a  line  extending 
through  the  time  each  job  will  take,  with  an  angle 
indicating  the  beginning  and  the  end.  Above  that 
line  he  writes  the  order  number  or  whatever  is 
necessary  to  identify  the  job.  When  he  has  laid 
out  the  orders  he  has  on  hand,  he  can  see  which 
machine  will  first  run  out  of  work  and,  when  an- 
other order  is  received  from  the  superintendent's 


Visualizing  tfie  Progress  of  Work         119 

office,  he  assigns  it  to  that  machine.  If  the  super- 
intendent asks  him  when  he  will  finish  any  par- 
ticular order,  the  foreman  can  tell  him  with  con- 
siderable accuracy  by  referring  to  this  sheet. 

This  graphic  layout  enables  the  foreman  to 
group  his  orders  and  distribute  them  over  his 
machines  in  a  much  more  intelligent  manner  than 
by  the  hit-or-miss  method  of  waiting  until  a  ma- 
chine runs  out  of  work  before  deciding  what  its 
next  job  will  be. 

As  the  work  proceeds  on  the  various  orders, 
the  foreman  draws  a  heavy  line  on  the  chart 
through  each  order  to  indicate  the  amount  of 
work  done.  A  glance  at  the  Layout  Sheet  will 
at  any  time  tell  him  how  far  he  is  behind  or  ahead 
of  his  schedule.  When  he  falls  behind  he  lays 
out,  at  the  end  of  the  line  for  that  machine,  an 
amount  of  time  equal  to  the  delay,  so  that  when 
another  order  comes  in  he  will  know  when  he  can 
reasonably  expect  to  begin  it. 

This  Layout  Sheet  will  at  all  times  tell  the  fore- 
man the  load  on  his  department  and  the  work 
ahead  of  any  class  of  machines.  When  a  machine 
breaks  down,  it  makes  it  easier  for  him  to  transfer 
the  work  from  it  to  other  machines  without  dis- 
turbing the  proper  sequence  of  work. 

The  value  of  the  Layout  Sheet  is  illustrated  by 
an  incident  taken  from  a  New  England  shop.  The 
superintendent  was  all  out  of  patience  with  one  of 
his  foremen.  Delivery  of  a  certain  order  had  been 
promised  within  two  months,  but  when  he  had 
asked  this  foreman  just  when  he  could  finish  his 


120 


The  Foreman  and  His  Job 


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Visualizing  the  Progress  of  Work        121 

Key  to  Layout  Sheet. — The  following  key  ex- 
plains the  characters  on  the  Layout  Sheet,  Figure 
7,  facing  this  page: 

(T  Date  job  is  scheduled  to  start. 

1  Date  job  is  scheduled  to  be  com- 

pleted. 

I  I  Total  time  scheduled  for  order. 

maanasBBBaa  Work  done. 


CSSEEeSZZI  Time  required  to  make  up  for  past 
delays. 

Figures  above  lines  are  order  numbers. 

Reasons  for  stopping  work  are  indicated  with 
these  letters,  as  may  be  necessary: 

H.   Lack  of  help.  P.    Lack  of  power. 

M.  Lack  of  material.      R.   Repairs. 
T.    Lack  of  tools. 

The  V  (at  the  top  of  lines  separating  Thursday 
from  Friday)  indicates  that  the  chart  was  repro- 
duced Thursday  night  and  showed  how  the  work 
stood  at  that  time. 


122  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

part  of  the  work  the  reply  had  been,  "Ten  weeks." 
No  amount  of  argument  from  the  superintendent 
changed  the  foreman's  decision,  although  he  did 
say  that  if  he  had  two  more  machines  he  could 
finish  the  work  in  eight  weeks.  The  superintendent 
felt  that  he  was  stalling,  so  he  went  out  into  the 
shop  once  more  and  urged  the  foreman  to  promise 
delivery  in  less  than  ten  weeks. 

The  foreman  showed  him  his  Layout  Sheets : 
the  material  was  not  expected  in  for  three  days, 
and,  after  its  reception,  it  had  to  go  through 
several  operations;  the  first  and  fourth  opera- 
tions were  long  ones.  When  the  superintendent 
looked  over  the  Layout  Sheets  and  discussed  the 
time  allowed  and  the  probable  delays,  he  could 
see  that  the  machines  on  which  these  two  opera- 
tions must  be  done  were  loaded  to  their  capacity, 
while  the  machines  for  the  other  operations  would 
be  idle  part  of  the  time.  These  Layout  Sheets 
pointed  very  clearly  to  the  solution.  The  super- 
intendent took  them  to  the  owner,  explained  them 
to  him,  and  showed  him  that  he  must  either  tell 
the  customer  that  delivery  could  not  be  made  in 
less  than  ten  weeks  or  that  two  new  machines 
must  be  installed  immediately,  one  for  the  first 
operation  and  one  for  the  fourth. 

From  that  time  on  the  superintendent  had  ab- 
solute confidence  in  the  promises  this  foreman 
made. 


Visualizing  the  Progress  of  Work         1 23 

Production  Cards. — Before  the  foreman  gets 
his  Order  of  Work  and  Shop  Orders  running 
smoothly,  he  finds  difficulty  in  telling  the  men 
what  orders  they  are  to  do  next  and  in  finding  out 
what  work  has  been  done,  unless  he  already  has 
Production  Cards.  These  are  sometimes  called 
"Job  Cards,"  "Time  Cards,"  and  various  other 
names.  He  uses  these  cards  to  tell  his  work- 
men what  jobs  they  are  to  do,  and  to  record  the 
work  done.  A  complete  Production  Card  should 
show : 

What  work  is  to  be  done. 

Who  worked. 

When  he  worked. 

What  he  did. 

What  he  was  paid  for  it. 

What  machine  was  used. 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  these  cards  form  the 
basis  of  all  production  and  cost  records.  It  is 
important  that  they  be  filled  out  with  great  ac- 
curacy, and  the  foreman  will  find  that  his  records 
will  be  handled  with  fewer  mistakes  if  he  has  a 
production  clerk  who  is  thoroughly  familiar  with 
the  machines  and  orders  in  the  shop,  rather  than 
a  clerk  who  is  merely  quick  at  figures.  The  addi- 
tions can  easily  be  checked,  but  it  is  difficult  to 
detect  errors  in  order  numbers  or  machine  num- 
bers. 

Man  Record  Cards. — When  the  foreman  has 
his  work  pretty  well  planned  and  all  of  his  rec- 
ords coming  through  with  fair  accuracy,  he  can 
begin  to  look  into  the  individual  production  of 


124  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

his  operators.  It  is  difficult  to  get  a  very  clear 
idea  of  any  man's  production  by  going  through 
a  large  number  of  Production  Cards.  Accord- 
ingly the  foreman  has  the  records  transferred  to 
Man  Record  Cards,  one  for  each  workman.  A 
form  for  this  card  is  given  in  Figure  8,  page  125. 
On  these  cards  the  work  done  and  the  time  taken 
are  entered,  but  the  time  taken  is  not  of  very 
much  value  until  it  is  compared  with  the  time 
which  should  have  been  taken.  The  foreman  sees 
the  advantage  of  making  an  estimate  of  the  time 
a  job  should  take  before  it  is  begun.  If  there 
is  in  his  possession  accurate  information  on  these 
points  he  makes  use  of  it  and,  if  not,  he  makes 
the  best  estimate  he  can,  based  on  his  past  ex- 
perience, keeping  in  mind  that  his  estimate  is 
what  a  good  man  should  do  on  a  good  machine 
without  taking  into  consideration  individual 
ability. 

This  estimated  time  is  written  on  the  Man 
Record  Card,  and,  when  the  workman  fails  to  live 
up  to  the  promised  estimate,  the  reason  is  written 
in  the  last  column  of  the  card. 

Man  Record  Charts. — It  is  difficult  to  get  a 
comprehensive  idea  of  the  information  entered  on 
the  cards  or  to  compare  one  man  with  another,  so 
the  foreman  enters  these  records  on  a  Man  Rec- 
ord Chart.  Figure  9,  facing  page  129,  shows  a 
form  for  this  chart,  the  key  to  which  is  on  page 
129.  He  lists  his  workmen  on  the  left  side  of 
the  sheet,  arranging  them  in  groups  under  his  sub- 
foremen  if  he  has  any;  if  not,  he  groups  them 


Visualizing  the  Progress  of  Work         125 


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126  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

according  to  kinds  of  machines.  On  this  chart, 
the  wide  columns,  one  for  each  day,  represent  the 
amount  of  work  that  should  have  been  done  in  a 
day.  On  the  Man  Record  Card,  the  foreman 
foots  the  day's  work  of  the  operator  and  divides 
the  time  actually  taken  into  the  estimated  time. 
The  resulting  percentage  represents  the  compari- 
son between  the  work  actually  done  and  what  the 
foreman  thought  should  be  done.  For  instance : 
An  operator  has  taken  eight  hours  to  do  work 
which  the  foreman  had  expected  him  to  do  in  six 
hours.  He  therefore  divides  eight  into  six  which 
gives  him  75  per  cent.  The  foreman  then  draws 
a  light  line  through  75  per  cent  of  the  space  for 
that  day. 

If  the  operator  has  taken  eight  hours  to  do  the 
work  which  the  foreman  estimated  would  take  the 
average  man  twelve  hours,  he  divides  eight  into 
twelve  and  finds  that  the  man  has  done  150  per 
cent  of  a  day's  work.  He  accordingly  draws  a 
light  line  all  the  way  across  the  daily  space  and 
another  line  one-half  way  across. 

If  the  foreman  has  not  estimated  the  time  any 
job  should  take,  he  draws  a  broken  line  through 
a  space  equal  to  the  time  actually  spent  on  that 
job. 

The  portion  of  the  daily  space  through  which 
no  line  is  drawn  shows  how  much  the  operator 
has  fallen  behind  what  was  expected  of  him.  In 
this  space  he  indicates,  by  means  of  a  letter,  the 
reason  for  falling  behind  as  shown  on  the  Man 
Record  Card.    For  instance: 


Visualizing  the  Progress  of  Work         127 

A.    Man  is  absent. 

G.     Man  is  a  green  operator,  etc. 

If  there  is  more  than  one  reason  for  falling 
behind,  the  one  to  be  entered  on  the  chart  is  de- 
termined by  asking  questions  as  listed  on  the  key 
to  the  Man  Record  Chart  given  on  page  129. 

At  the  end  of  the  week  the  foreman  draws 
heavy  cumulative  lines  to  show  the  weekly  total 
of  each  operator — the  heavy  lines  always  being 
equal  to  the  sum  of  the  light  lines.  To  get  the 
group  totals  he  adds  the  heavy  cumulative  lines 
in  each  group  and  divides  by  the  number  of  men 
in  the  group.  To  get  the  total  of  the  whole  de- 
partment, the  heavy  cumulative  lines  of  the  group 
totals  are  added,  and  then  divided  by  the  number 
of  groups. 

This  department  total  line  shows  the  foreman 
how  his  department,  as  a  whole,  is  living  up  to 
his  idea  of  what  it  should  do.  If  it  is  not  satis- 
factory, he  can  glance  over  the  various  group 
totals  and  see  which  group  or  sub-foreman  has 
fallen  behind.  Then,  by  looking  over  the  in- 
dividuals responsible  to  that  sub-foreman,  he  can 
see  in  detail  the  reasons  why  they  could  not  do  the 
full  week's  work  and  which  individuals  are  most 
in  need  of  help.  This  plan  will  enable  him  to  con- 
centrate his  attention  on  specific  difficulties;  and, 
on  account  of  his  greater  authority,  he  will  be 
more  successful  in  removing  those  difficulties  than 
the  sub-foremen. 

When  the  foreman  has  drawn  up  these  Man 
Record  Charts,  he  is  usually  surprised  to  learn 


128  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

that  the  failure  of  the  operator  to  do  the  wor! 
within  the  estimated  time  is  more  often  his  own 
fault  than  that  of  the  workman.  He  learns  how 
much  of  the  time  of  both  machines  and  operators 
is  wasted  because  of  the  improper  sharpening  of 
tools,  defects  in  materials  which  should  have  been 
caught  by  the  inspectors,  unsatisfactory  condition 
of  machines,  and  lack  of  proper  instructions  on 
new  jobs.  He  understands,  better  than  ever  be- 
fore, why  the  costs  of  so  many  jobs  exceed  his 
estimates. 

These  charts  give  the  foreman  such  informa- 
tion about  individual  production  as  will  enable 
him  to  instruct  those  men  who  are  most  in  need 
of  help.  They  give  him,  also,  a  fairly  accurate 
basis  for  regulating  the  wages  of  his  operators  in 
accordance  with  their  production. 


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Visualizing  the  Progress  of  Work         129 

Key  to  Man  Record  Chart.— -The  following  key  ex- 
plains the  characters  used  in  keeping  the  Man  Record 
Chart,  Figure  9,  facing  this  page: 

I  Width  of  daily  space  represents  amount 
1       of  work  that  should  have  been  done 
in  a  day. 

Amount  of  work  actually  done  in  a  day. 

... .«_  Time  taken  on  work  on  which  no  esti- 
mate is  available. 
-          ...   Weekly  total  of  operator.     Solid  line  for 
estimated  work;  broken  line  for  time 
spent  on  work  not  estimated. 
Weekly  total  for  group  of  operators. 
Weekly  total  for  department. 

The  portion  of  the  daily  space  through  which  no  line 
is  drawn  shows  how  much  the  man  has  fallen  behind  what 
was  expected  of  him. 

Reasons  for  falling  behind  are  indicated,  whenever 
necessary,  as  follows: 

A.    Absent.  M.  Material  troubles. 

G.    Green  operator.  R.    Repairs  needed. 

I.     Lack  of  instructions.      T.    Tool  troubles. 
L.    Slow  operator.  V.    Holiday. 

Y.    Smaller  lot  than  estimate  is  based  on. 

When  there  is  more  than  one  reason  for  failure  to  do 
the  work  in  the  estimated  time,  the  reason  entered  on  the 
chart  is  determined  by  asking  questions  in  the  following 
order : 

R.    Was  the  machine  in  good  condition? 

T.    Were  the  tools  and  fixtures  in  good  condition? 

I.     Was   the   operator   given   proper   instructions   and 

sufficient  information? 
M.  Was  trouble  experienced  with  material? 
G.    Was  the  operator  too  green  to  do  the  job? 
L.    Was  the  operator  too  slow? 
Y.    Was  the  lot  smaller  than  estimate  is  based  on  ? 


130 


The  Foreman  and  His  Job 


Section  HI 
Making  Sure  of  Adequate  Supplies 

Keeping  Stock  Up  to  Requirements. — Nearly 
every  foreman  has  to  keep,  in  his  department,  at 
least  a  small  stock  of  tools  or  supplies  which  he 
uses  constantly.  (Material  for  manufacturing 
purposes  is  usually  kept  by  a  separate  stock- 
keeper.)  The  reason  why  the  foreman  keeps 
these  tools  or  supplies  in  his  department  is  to 
have  them  on  hand  when  they  are  needed.  With 
this  end  in  view  the  foreman  plans  to  place  his 
order  for  more  before  he  runs  out  of  stock.  This 
is  a  matter  which  frequently  causes  a  great  deal 
of  delay  and  annoyance;  but  when  it  is  handled 
in  a  simple  and  common-sense  manner  it  gives  no 
trouble  at  all. 

The  first  thing  the  foreman  does  is  to  make 
a  list  of  all  the  kinds  of  tools  or  supplies  he  intends 
to  keep  in  stock.  This  list  is  made  up  on  a  card 
or  in  a  book  ruled  and  headed  as  follows: 


Material 

Order  Point 

Quantity  to  Order 

Items 

Time 

Quantity 

Time 

Quantity 

I 

It  is  wise  to  limit  the  material  to  be  kept  in 
stock  to  as  few  items  as  possible,  for  the  more 
items  there  are  kept  in  stock  the  greater  will  be 


Making  Sure  of  Adequate  Supplies        L31 

the  cost.     The  foreman  realizes  that  the  cost  of 
keeping  material  in  stock  is  made  up  of: 

A.  Interest  on  money  invested. 

B.  Waste  and  spoilage. 

C.  Rental  and  maintenance  of  space  occupied. 

D.  Losses  due  to  material  getting  out  of  date. 

Having  decided  on  the  items  which  it  is  neces- 
sary for  him  to  keep  in  stock  and  listed  them, 
the  foreman  wants  to  know  when  to  place  his 
orders. 

The  Meaning  of  "Order  Point." — By  the 
words,  "Order  Point,"  which  you  will  note  on  the 
sample  form  already  given,  is  meant  the  point  at 
which  an  order  should  be  placed  for  an  additional 
supply.     This  point  is  determined  by  two  things : 

1.  The  time  it  will  take  to  get  a  new  supply. 

2.  The  amount  likely  to  be  used  during  that 
time. 

Suppose  that  a  certain  tool  has  to  be  kept  in 
stock  and  the  foreman  knows  by  experience  that 
from  the  time  he  places  an  order  for  a  new  supply 
until  it  is  received  and  on  his  shelves  about  two 
weeks  must  elapse.  He  finds  out  how  many  tools 
of  this  kind  are  likely  to  be  used  in  two  weeks. 
Let  us  say  10.  Under  "Order  Point"  on  his  list, 
he  writes  "2  weeks"  under  "Time"  and  "10" 
under  "Quantity,"  for  10  is  the  point  at  which  an 
order  should  be  placed  so  as  to  allow  time  for  the 
new  supply  to  be  received  before  the  old  supply 
is  used  up. 


132  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Marking  Order  Points. — Writing  down  these 
order  points  on  the  list  will  not,  of  course,  pre- 
vent the  running  out  of  stock.  It  is  necessary  to 
have  some  way  of  automatically  calling  to  the 
attention  of  the  man  who  takes  tools  out  of  the 
bin  the  fact  that  the  order  point  has  been  reached. 
The  foreman  therefore  marks  the  order  point  on 
the  material  itself. 

For  example:  If  he  has  in  stock  40  tools  of  a 
certain  kind  and  the  order  point  is  10,  he  ties  a 
cord  around  the  10,  attaches  a  red  tag  and  piles 
the  remaining  30  on  top  of  the  10.  When  the 
30  are  used  up  and  it  is  necessary  to  break  open 
the  package  of  10,  marked  with  the  red  tag,  the 
foreman  is  automatically  notified  that  he  should 
place  an  order  for  an  additional  supply.  This 
is  the  surest  way  to  avoid  running  out  of  stock, 
for  nothing  is  left  to  one's  memory. 

Quantity  of  Supplies  to  Order. — The  foreman 
now  has  his  stock-keeping  in  such  shape  that  he 
can  turn  it  over  to  one  of  his  assistants.  The  only 
thing  he  needs  to  add  to  his  list  is  the  quantity 
to  order.  He  decides  just  how  often  he  wants 
to  order  and,  from  that,  he  figures  the  amount  he 
will  use  in  that  time.  In  the  case  of  the  tool  men- 
tioned in  the  preceding  paragraph,  where  the  time 
of  the  order  point  was  two  weeks  and  the  quantity 
10,  he  may  think  it  advisable  to  order  enough  to 
last  eight  weeks.  If  10  have  lasted  two  weeks,  it 
will  take  40  to  last  eight  weeks.  Accordingly,  he 
writes  u8  weeks"  and  "40"  on  the  list  under 
"Quantity  to  Order." 


Making  Sure  of  Adequate  Supplies       133 

This  is  the  simplest  possible  method  of  stock- 
keeping.  If  the  order  points  written  on  the  list 
are  correct,  if  they  are  carefully  marked  on  the 
material  itself  with  red  tags,  if  orders  are  placed 
for  more  as  soon  as  the  order  points  are  broken 
open,  the  foreman  will  always  have  tools  and  sup- 
plies when  they  are  needed,  and  will  not  be  forced 
to  stop  work  for  lack  of  tools  or  supplies.  If  he 
is  careful  in  deciding  on  his  order  points  and 
quantities  to  order,  he  will  be  able  to  keep  his 
investment  in  tools  and  supplies  down  to  a  low 
figure. 

The  Value  of  Production  Records. — The  mech- 
anism described  above  enables  the  foreman  to  turn 
out  the  orders  he  receives  from  the  superin- 
tendent's office  in  the  sequence  desired  and  to  re- 
port work  as  it  is  done.  He  also  has  charts  show- 
ing him  how  well  he  succeeds  in  keeping  his  ma- 
chines running  and  how  the  amount  of  work  done 
by  his  operators  compares  with  the  standard 
which  he  has  set.  These  charts  show  the  foreman 
at  a  glance  a  comparison  between  what  has  been 
done  and  what  should  have  been  done.  They  indi- 
cate with  great  accuracy  the  probabilities  of  fu- 
ture performance  and  enable  him  to  anticipate  his 
needs  and  prepare  for  them. 

"The  broad  application  of  this  method  of  show- 
ing the  relation  between  what  has  been  done  and 
what  should  be  done  will  immediately  suggest  it- 
self." It  has  been  used  in  small  shops  and  in  the 
biggest  industries  spread  all  over  the  country. 
Where  machines  are  not  used,  the  foreman  plans 


134  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

his  work  for  gangs  of  men  or  individual  men  and 
his  Order  of  Work  and  Layout  sheets  are  arranged 
accordingly.  If  the  reasons  for  these  methods  and 
their  operation  are  thoroughly  understood,  an  in- 
telligent foreman  will  be  able  to  adapt  them  to  any 
kind  of  work. 

These  methods  form  a  complete  mechanism, 
not  for  getting  things  done,  but  for  furnishing  the 
information  needed  by  the  foreman  in  order  to 
get  things  done. 

Records  cannot  do  anything  of  themselves ; 
it  is  only  the  action  of  the  foreman  based 
on  those  records  that  accomplishes  results. 


Part  II:    The  Foreman 

THE  FOREMAN  AND  LABOR 

Section  I 
The  Foreman  and  the  Man 

Effects  of  Environment  on  the  Individual . — In 
Chapter  2  we  spoke  about  the  worker  as  a  man 
and  as  an  operator,  and  the  things  about  the 
man  which  enter  into  the  quality  of  his  work  and 
the  capacity  of  his  operating  skill.  It  was  neces- 
sary there  to  show  the  difference  between  men  as 
workers  and  the  difference  in  their  attitudes  to- 
ward their  work.  In  this  chapter  we  want  to  con- 
sider the  worker  as  a  man  in  his  thoughts  and 
desires  and  opinions,  because  the  worker  brings 
to  his  work,  not  only  those  habits  of  mind  and 
body  which  affect  the  quality  and  skill  of  his  work, 
but  he  also  brings  with  him  his  ideas  about  his 
family,  his  neighbors,  his  politics,  his  religion,  his 
tastes,  and  everything  else. 

While  these  things  are  not  directly  connected 
with  his  working  capacity,  they  are  so  closely  tied 
up  with  his  relations  to  other  workers,  his  atti- 
tude toward  the  company,  and  his  contentment, 
that  they  affect  his  capacity  to  work  or  to  re- 
main at  work.  In  other  words,  these  things  are 
a  part  of  his  contentment  with  his  work  or  his 
desire  to  move  from  job  to  job.  They  are  a  part 
of  his  way  of  looking  at  his  work  and  they  make 
him  put  his  heart  into  his  job  or  keep  him  from 


136  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

putting  his  whole  spirit  into  it.  The  man  we 
were  talking  about  as  a  worker  is  the  machinery  of 
the  man — his  mind  and  bodily  skill.  The  man 
we  are  now  considering  as  an  individual  includes 
the  whole  man — the  spirit  within  him  as  well  as 
the  physical  machinery  which  the  spirit  uses. 

We  say  that  a  man  frequently  gets  into  work 
which  does  not  fit  him.  As  far  as  muscle  is  con- 
cerned, he  may  have  enough  for  the  purpose ;  as 
far  as  skill  is  concerned,  he  may  do  as  well  as  the 
average.  What  do  we  mean  then?  We  mean 
that  the  man  cannot  put  his  whole  self  into  the 
accomplishment  of  the  job,  and  therefore  he  is 
not  in  suitable  work. 

Just  as  some  men  are  tall  and  others  short,  some 
dark  and  others  fair-haired,  some  cheery  and 
others  serious,  so  some  men  are  sensitive  to  praise 
and  can  work  better  when  they  receive  encourage- 
ment, while  others  are  keen  to  sense  an  injustice — 
are  almost  morbid  about  injustice — and  will  see 
something  wrong  even  where  it  is  not  intended. 
Some  men  can  stand  a  lot  of  grilling  and  work 
well  under  it;  other  men  wilt  and  become  dis- 
couraged. Some  men  like  honors  better  than 
money,  and  others  are  the  reverse.  They  all  re- 
quire different  methods  of  treatment. 

Ways  of  Handling  Men. — I  know  one  man 
who  is  accounted  cold-blooded  and  reserved  even 
by  his  best  friends.  I  have  seen  him  so  shaken 
with  emotion  that  he  had  a  hard  matter  to  con- 
trol himself.  The  effort  alone  forced  all  the  blood 
from  his  face.     He  admitted  to  me — perhaps  be- 


The  Foreman  and  the  Man  137 

cause  he  knew  I  had  seen  it — that  he  had  to  as- 
sume that  attitude  of  reserve  to  keep  control  over 
his  emotions.  Many  a  man  has  failed  to  get  the 
best  out  of  my  friend  because  he  did  not  under- 
stand that  peculiarity  in  his  make-up  as  an  in- 
dividual. 

There  are  many  people  whose  pride  is  as  simple 
and  great  as  the  pride  of  the  child  who  has  se- 
cured a  good  mark  or  won  a  prize  in  school,  and 
there  are  others  whose  pride  is  of  the  variety 
which  knows  only  the  magnificence  of  its  own 
capacity — like  a  peacock.  The  first  can  be  handled 
and  educated;  the  last  must  be  tolerated — it  is 
almost  impossible  to  cure  it. 

One  time  1  had  to  handle  a  gang  of  toughs  on 
a  shovel  job,  who  took  kindness  for  weakness, 
and  Iwas  obliged  to  thrash  the  leader  before  we 
could  be  friends.  I  had  a  hard  time  doing  it,  too. 
During  the  war,  one  of  my  friends  had  been  put 
in  charge  of  a  gang  of  Chinese  laborers  from 
Shanghai — wharf  rats,  with  no  moral  instincts, 
the  poorest  specimens  of  humanity.  He  was  con- 
gratulated for  having  the  best-disciplined  gang 
in  that  section,  but  he  informed  me  that  he  had 
three  fights  before  he  managed  to  whip  his  gang 
into  shape. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  once  saw  an  old  army 
sergeant,  who  had  been  used  to  drilling  recruits 
from  the  coal  mines,  try  to  handle  a  bunch  of 
rookies  from  a  college.  He  had  to  quit.  He 
tried  to  browbeat  and  bully  those  fellows  and 
they  wouldn't  stand   for   it.     A  mild-mannered, 


138  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

little,  bespectacled  lieutenant  came  along  and  soon 
had  those  men  so  they  would  go  through  fire  and 
water  for  him  any  day  before  breakfast. 

Men  as  individuals  vary  in  all  their  spiritual 
reactions  and  the  man  who  makes  his  living  by 
handling  other  men  must  know  them  as  indi- 
viduals. In  fact,  most  of  the  business  leaders 
today  are  beginning  to  require  their  supervisors 
to  have  more  exact  knowledge  of  people;  and 
they  are  using  more  care  in  dealing  with  men  than 
they  take  about  any  other  part  of  the  business. 
Because  Jim  can  be  handled  in  one  way  is  no 
reason  why  you  should  try  that  way  on  Joe.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  you  know  that  both  can't  be 
handled  alike.  The  more  the  individual  is  studied, 
the  more  effectively  he  can  be  supervised  with  less 
work  on  the  part  of  the  supervisor. 

Working  with  the  Individual. — In  most  large 
groups  it  is  true  that  there  are  some  men  who 
cannot  be  kept  within  the  reasonable  limits  of 
efficiency  and  order  without  the  fear  of  discipli- 
nary measures.  Usually,  however,  men  will  re- 
spond much  more  readily  to  a  decent  square  deal, 
sympathy,  and  some  commendation  of  their  work 
from  the  foreman.  They  will  give  their  energy, 
their  skill,  and  their  loyalty  to  such  a  man.  Not 
only  that,  but  they  will  improve  themselves  and 
give  him  the  value  of  that  improvement. 

The  great  object  of  the  supervisor  is  to  draw 
out  the  skill  of  the  worker,  to  develop  his  intel- 
lectual capacity  for  the  purpose  of  improving  his 
skill;  and  to  do  this  with  a  minimum  of  turnover, 


The  Foreman  and  the  Man  139 

a  minimum  of  friction,  and  a  maximum  of  en- 
thusiasm. This  shows  itself  in  the  practical  effect 
upon  the  amount  of  work  which  the  men  turn  out, 
the  way  in  which  they  stay  on  the  job,  and  the  way 
they  talk  about  the  job. 

On  one  tunnel  job  which  involved  a  lot  of  rock- 
boring,  we  had  a  gang  of  drillers  who  could  drill 
and  shoot  faster  than  any  other  gang  on  the  job. 
The  foreman  of  this  gang  was  a  remarkably  skill- 
ful rock  man  himself,  although  he  was  very  quiet 
and  scarcely  ever  resorted  to  browbeating  the  men 
as  most  of  the  foremen  were  accustomed  to  do  on 
that  kind  of  work.  Rock  drillers  on  tunnel  work 
are  a  rough,  hard  lot,  and  it  is  not  easy  for 
them  to  work  together  as  a  group.  This  fellow, 
in  his  quiet  way,  without  any  bluster,  had  so 
thoroughly  imbued  each  of  the  workers  in  his  gang 
with  belief  in  himself  and  his  ability  that  they 
swung  through  their  work  like  a  big  league  ball 
team.  Of  course,  he  always  had  bits  sharpened  in 
sufficient  quantities  to  keep  his  men  well  supplied. 
Water  was  at  hand  in  plenty.  Dynamite  and 
fuses  were  placed  so  that  no  time  need  be  lost. 
He  could  get  the  tool  men  to  work  on  the  drills 
between  shifts  in  order  to  keep  his  gang  up  to 
the  minute,  and  it  used  to  be  a  pleasure  to  watch 
those  boys  make  the  pace  for  the  whole  camp, 
day  after  day,  without  the  usual  jealousy  and 
scrapping. 


140  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Section  II 
The  Foreman  and  the  Conditions 

Old  vs.  New  Attitudes  toward  Environment. 
It's  a  pretty  hard  job  to  go  to  work  while  on  a 
vacation  and  paint  a  house  situated  close  to  a 
fine  ocean  front;  especially  if  you  haven't  had  the 
opportunity  of  sitting  on  the  beach  very  often. 
The  desire  to  do  something  else  than  to  work  at  a 
painting  job  is  very  apt  to  strengthen  greatly  un- 
der such  circumstances.  And,  too,  it  is  not  easy 
for  a  man  to  get  up  in  the  morning  by  gas  or 
electric  light  and  travel  in  the  dark  to  his  work; 
and  he  doesn't  feel  entirely  like  working  when 
the  journey  is  completed.  Nobody  feels  quite  as 
full  of  energy  on  a  gray  day,  with  cold  clouds 
all  over  the  sky,  as  on  a  day  when  the  sun  shines 
and  the  sky  is  bright.  All  people  feel  their  sur- 
roundings to  some  degree,  and  their  personal 
efficiency  is  affected  by  the  feelings  occasioned  by 
the  environment. 

When  the  factory  system  first  started  we  did 
not  know  these  things ;  we  didn't  see  why  it  should 
make  any  difference  whether  the  factory  was  dusty 
and  dull  or  white  and  shining.  We  did  not  think 
of  such  things  as  cleaning  windows  or  making 
enough  space  to  provide  all  the  light  necessary 
for  the  workers.  We  did  not  think  much  about 
the  effect  of  good-looking  buildings,  comfortable 
floors,  dry  washrooms,  warm  dressing  rooms, 
sufficient  fresh  air,  and  adequate  lighting.  In  so 
many  lines  of  industry  the  older  factories  show 


The  Foreman  and  the  Conditions         141 

these  shortcomings  by  small  windows,  dark-coated 
inside  halls,  poor  floors,  lack  of  any  real  plan  of 
ventilation,  and  other  deficiencies. 

New  factories  are  not  affected  in  this  way. 
Doctors  and  engineers  have  proved  that  men  must 
have  fresh  air,  plenty  of  light,  a  warm  atmos- 
phere, with  clean,  dry,  and  comfortable  surround- 
ings if  they  are  to  do  their  work  properly  with 
the  least  possible  errors.  So  the  newer  factories 
are  built  of  glass  with  a  framework  of  brick  or 
concrete.  They  provide  the  best  known  means  of 
ventilation.  They  can  be  kept  clean  easily  and 
they  are  comfortable  working  places.  Even  in  a 
few  lines  where  sunshine  and  warm  air  are  not 
possible,  the  hardships  of  the  surroundings  are 
mitigated  as  much  as  possible. 

There  are  many  older  factories  which  cannot 
be  altered  to  meet  modern  standards.  The  build- 
ings cannot  be  torn  down  and  rebuilt  without  too 
great  interference  with  production,  and  so  it  is 
necessary  to  use  them,  with  all  their  defects,  until 
they  become  old  enough  to  require  rebuilding. 

There  is  no  excuse  in  any  plant  for  dirty  win- 
dows and  dirty  inside  walls.  Walls,  whether  old 
or  new,  can  be  painted  so  that  they  are  washable 
and  they  can  be  kept  clean.  They  can  be  arranged 
to  catch  and  reflect  the  maximum  of  light  and  thus 
aid  the  men  at  work  instead  of  hindering  them. 
Artificial  lighting,  too,  can  be  arranged  to  give 
the  operator  the  maximum  light  and  minimum  dis- 
comfort. The  simple  sanitary  conveniences  and 
other  requirements  for  personal  comfort  can  be 


142  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

arranged  in  any  factory  building.  No  concern 
priding  itself  on  shrewd  foresight  would  go  with- 
out these  things,  because  it  has  been  understood 
for  a  long  time  that  light  and  fresh  air,  heat  and 
dry  comfort  are  necessary  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
decent  working  place.  Moreover,  they  affect  pro- 
duction and  labor  turnover  immediately  and 
vitally. 

There  are  other  matters  connected  with  the 
surroundings  which  have  not  been  visioned  quite 
as  clearly,  but  which  affect  the  work  just  as  much 
as  those  mentioned.  It  is  not  long  since  we  sup- 
posed that  dust  and  smoke  in  the  ordinary  foundry 
were  necessary  to  the  foundry  business  and  could 
not  be  done  away  with.  Some  concerns,  however, 
have  built  foundries  which  have  just  as  much  ven- 
tilation, light,  and  heat  as  any  other  shop  and  are 
just  as  comfortable  to  work  in. 

It  took  us  a  long  time  to  learn  how  to  manu- 
facture chemicals  so  that  the  workers  could  be 
comfortable  and  healthy.  The  engineers  are  con- 
stantly studying  these  things  and  they  are  aided 
by  the  doctors,  so  that  every  day  we  are  acquiring 
more  knowledge  of  how  to  arrange  comfortable 
working  conditions.  Whether  the  surroundings 
are  good  or  bad,  they  affect  the  work  of  every  man 
who  must  labor  in  them.  If  the  surroundings 
continue  to  be  bad,  the  efficiency  is  reduced  and 
labor  turnover  is  increased.  While  the  main  con- 
ditions as  to  light  and  heat  and  air  are  taken  care 
of  by  the  engineers,  the  foreman  should  see  to  it 
that  these  things  are  looked  after,  and  that  the 


The  Foreman  and  the  Conditions         143 

surroundings  of  the  individual  in  his  group  are 
best  suited  for  his  work  and  comfort. 

Production  Affected  by  Environment. — When 
the  factory  system  began,  about  one  hundred 
years  ago  in  Great  Britain,  the  values  of  proper 
lighting,  plenty  of  air,  proper  heat,  dry  floors,  and 
pleasant  factory  grounds  were  not  known  at  all. 
The  earlier  factory  workers  in  those  days  had 
very  little  ventilation  or  light  and  no  heat.  They 
frequently  worked  under  conditions  sure  to  pro- 
mote disease  and  reduce  the  quality  and  quantity 
of  work.  It  was  not  until  much  later  that  the 
effect  of  surroundings  upon  the  man's  capacity  to 
produce  and  upon  his  state  of  mind  toward  his 
work  was  appreciated. 

My  memory  recalls  very  distinctly  the  dye- 
house  of  a  factory  I  worked  in  as  a  youngster.  It 
was  always  dark  enough  in  there  to  require  a  lot  of 
artificial  light  and  many  extra  trips  were  required 
to  bring  dyed  samples  to  one  of  the  far  windows 
to  be  examined.  The  floor  of  the  place  did  not 
drain  as  it  should  and  there  was  always  water 
on  it.  The  workmen  had  to  stand  on  boards  by 
the  dye  vats  and  the  centrifugal  machines  so  as 
to  be  out  of  the  worst  of  it.  Ventilation  was  bad 
and  the  steam  did  not  have  a  chance  to  escape. 
Working  in  there  was  not  only  disagreeable;  it 
produced,  in  time,  hatred  for  the  job.  I  dreaded 
going  into  the  place,  in  the  winter-time,  to  endure 
the  dampness,  the  absence  of  daylight,  and  the 
smell  of  the  dye.    I  began  to  suspect  the  manage- 


144  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

merit  for  allowing  such  conditions  and  became  bit- 
ter toward  the  factory  and  the  job  itself. 

As  a  contrast,  I  went  through  a  modern  dye- 
house  not  long  ago.  There  was  plenty  of  light, 
heat,  and  ventilation — a  cheerful,  comfortable 
place  to  work.  Floors  were  arranged  to  drain 
rapidly  and  with  no  discomfort  to  the  worker.  It 
looked  as  though  everything  had  been  thought  out 
with  the  worker's  necessities  and  comfort  in  mind 
and  I  suppose  it  had.  The  engineers  who  de- 
signed that  plant  and  the  men  who  built  it  studied 
the  whole  thing  in  each  detail  with  the  object  of 
making  it  as  nearly  ideal  as  it  could  be  for  a  work- 
ing place.  Lighting  was  arranged  according  to 
plans  which  were  worked  out  with  such  necessities 
in  mind;  fresh  air  and  ventilation  wTere  secured  un- 
der most  difficult  circumstances;  and  a  comfortable 
degree  of  heat  was  provided.  This  is  not  because 
people  are  any  more  considerate  than  they  were, 
but  it  is  because  we  have  studied  the  matter  much 
more  carefully.  The  work  of  the  illuminating, 
the  heating,  and  the  sanitary  engineer  has  been 
of  untold  value  to  all  industry.  These  experts 
have  patiently  worked  out  methods  by  which  it 
has  become  easy  to  provide  such  surroundings 
as  will  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  work  and 
minister  to  the  comfort  of  the  worker. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  be  an  illuminating  engi- 
neer to  knowr  that  the  lights  are  not  as  they  should 
be  for  each  individual  worker  in  your  group,  and 
you  can  tell  when  the  heat  is  not  working  as  it 
should.      To   the   man   wTho   is   working  in   your 


The  Foreman  and  the  Organization       145 

group,  you  are  the  representative  of  the  whole 
management;  and  the  promptness  with  which  you 
appeal  to  the  proper  departments  when  the  sur- 
roundings are  not  all  they  should  be  will  do  a 
great  deal  to  keep  the  men  in  a  good  frame  of 
mind  toward  the  organization. 

Men  react  upon  each  other  when  they  must 
work  together.  Two  men  who  naturally  repulse 
each  other,  working  side  by  side,  will  have  a  very 
bad  effect  on  the  work  of  each.  Some  men  are 
more  sensitive  to  noise  than  others  and  some  are 
more  sensitive  to  bad  air.  Sometimes  it  is  pos- 
sible to  take  these  things  into  account  when  the 
work  is  arranged.  Of  course,  the  condition  of 
the  machinery  or  tools  with  which  the  men  work 
might  be  considered  at  this  point,  but  such  matters 
require  attention  at  the  proper  place  in  the  course. 
The  important  thing  to  understand  now  is  the 
effect  of  the  surroundings  upon  the  worker's  effici- 
ency and  upon  his  attitude  toward  industry,  the 
management,  and  the  whole  social  organization. 

Section  III 
The  Foreman  and  the  Organization 

Group  Organization  in  Industry. — Modern  or- 
ganization consists  of  large  groups  of  men  en- 
gaged in  some  common  object  and  with  some 
common  background  of  necessity  and  ideal, 
divided  into  smaller  groups  and  again  into  smaller 
groups  so  that  the  operations  can  be  arranged 
properly  without  confusion. 


146  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

The  political  as  well  as  the  industrial  organi- 
zations are  built  up  along  these  lines.  The 
United  States  is  a  large  group  living  under  a 
definite  constitution  which  gives  a  common  idea 
of  government  and  a  common  method  of  conduct- 
ing the  affairs  of  the  country.  Within  this  group 
are  smaller  groups  called  states,  governed  in  some 
matters  by  the  United  States  government  and  in 
other  matters  exercising  their  own  government 
of  the  groups  within  the  boundaries  of  their  con- 
trol. Within  each  state  are  the  still  smaller 
groups  called  counties  which  in  turn  govern  their 
internal  affairs  but  are  bound  by  the  laws  of  the 
state  on  all  other  matters.  These  counties  contain 
cities,  towns,  and  villages,  each  handling  matters 
pertaining  to  itself  alone.  Finally,  we  have  the 
family — the  oldest  and  simplest  group  in  the 
political  unit.  Industrially,  matters  are  worked 
out  in  much  the  same  way,  with  the  industry  as 
the  largest  unit  and  the  group  under  the  individual 
foreman  as  the  smallest. 

How  the  Group  Evolved. — Suppose  we  take 
one  of  the  old  cabinet-making  shops  with  ten 
workers  as  an  example.  There  was  only  one  boss 
and  he  was  the  owner  or  master  cabinet-maker. 
He  worked  along  with  the  men,  governed  their 
work,  and  took  care  of  all  matters  belonging  to 
the  group.  He  could  see  what  each  worker  did, 
could  know  each  one's  skill  and  capacity,  could 
measure  the  value  of  each  man  and  tell  who  was 
at  fault  in  every  controversy,  because  he  was 
right  on  the  job  with  them.     Suppose  this  owner 


The  Foreman  and  the  Organization       147 

put  in  some  machinery  so  that  he  could  turn  out 
the  products  faster.  This  gave  him  enough  com- 
petitive advantage  so  that  he  bought  four  other 
shops  and  employed  fifteen  workers  in  each  shop. 
Naturally  he  could  not  be  boss  of  all  five  shops 
and  act  as  the  foreman  in  each.  He  had  to  en- 
gage five  foremen,  each  to  run  one  shop.  Then, 
of  course,  he  wanted  each  shop  to  turn  out  the 
same  kind  of  work,  so  he  had  the  designs  made 
for  them  instead  of  having  the  men  make  them  as 
had  been  done  when  he  possessed  one  shop.  That 
meant  hiring  one  or  two  men  to  make  designs 
and  get  them  ready  for  each  shop,  so  he  had  to 
add  a  department  for  this  with  its  boss.  Then 
he  had  to  tell  the  foreman  in  each  shop  what 
jobs  to  work  on,  and  he  had  to  keep  track  of 
the  wood  consigned  to  each  shop  as  well  as  the 
tools  in  each  shop,  so  he  had  to  get  a  man  or  two 
to  keep  records  of  all  this,  and  one  of  them  had  to 
boss  that  job. 

The  proprietor  did  not  now  have  time  to  work 
at  the  bench  himself  because  he  had  to  buy  a  lot 
more  materials  and  tools,  sell  more  product, 
and  look  after  a  number  of  different  shops 
and  departments.  This  made  it  difficult  for  him 
to  keep  in  touch  with  each  man  who  worked  for 
him  as  he  had  always  tried  to  do.  Some  of  the 
new  bosses  in  the  different  shops  did  not  under- 
stand men  as  well  as  he  did  and  they  could  not 
keep  the  men  both  happy  and  at  work.  Some  of 
the  men  did  not  see  why  they  should  work  for  a 
boss  wTho  did  not  know  how  to  work  as  they  did, 
and  they  thought  he  was  making  a  great  deal  of 


148  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

money  out  of  their  efforts,  while  he  himself  did 
not  seem  to  be  doing  anything.  They  had  never 
talked  like  that  in  the  old  days  when  the  owner 
worked  in  the  shop,  for  he  had  always  shown 
them  that  he  knew  how  the  job  should  be  done  and 
could  do  it  for  them  if  they  were  stumped. 

This  is  what  actually  happened  until  the  evolu- 
tion of  group  organization  spread  throughout  the 
industrial  world.  Each  development  added  new 
departments  and  new  bosses,  so  that  the  number 
of  different  supervisors  kept  on  increasing  and 
the  necessity  for  system  kept  on  growing  in  order 
that  the  groups  might  be  subdivided  sufficiently 
to  keep  at  work  without  getting  into  confusion 
and  falling  over  each  other.  That's  why  it  is  so 
hard  to  see  the  necessity  for  so  many  rules  and 
records  and  methods  of  operating.  The  groups 
are  so  big,  they  are  subdivided  into  so  many  spe- 
cial departments  and  shops,  and  they  are  occupied 
with  so  many  fragments  of  the  work  which  is 
necessary  to  the  complete  job,  that  it  takes  a  lot 
of  study  and  a  lot  of  observation  to  see  the  reason 
for  all  of  it. 

Keeping  the  Group  in  Order. — When  that  old 
chap  had  been  running  his  five  cabinet-making 
shops  for  some  little  time,  he  heard  that  one  of 
his  old  employes  was  grumbling  about  having  to 
write  his  order  for  wood  and  kicking  at  all  the 
new  notions  his  boss  was  getting  into  his  head, 
now  that  he  had  become  so  big  and  wealthy.  The 
man  who  owned  the  shops  went  over  to  see  the 
grumbler   and  talked  with  him  as  he  had  done 


The  Foreman  and  the  Organization       149 

many  a  time  when  he  had  a  bench  in  the  corner 
of  the  same  shop  and  used  to  tell  the  men  to  go  to 
the  pile  and  pick  out  the  lumber.  Finally,  he 
suggested  to  the  disgruntled  worker  that  he  come 
around  with  him  and  look  at  each  of  the  depart- 
ments and  see  what  it  did  and  why. 

First,  he  took  him  over  to  the  yard  where  the 
lumber  was  piled  up.  Mahogany,  oak,  birch, 
pine,  and  the  other  woods  were  there,  in  all  the 
different  sizes  required.  Then  they  went  into 
the  little  office  in  the  lumber  yard  and  the  owner 
inquired  about  some  lumber  which  had  been 
taken  from  one  pile,  asking  where  it  had  gone. 
The  clerk  then  got  out  his  books  and  the  boss 
showed  his  grumbling  old  worker  where  they  re- 
corded the  lumber  brought  in  and  the  lumber 
sent  out.  He  showed  how  each  shop  had  the 
lumber  sent  to  it  charged  on  the  books  of  the 
lumber  yard.  Then  he  told  how  such  lumber 
would  make  so  many  chairs  and  tables,  so  many 
cabinets,  and  so  forth.  Next,  he  explained  how 
each  shop  was  expected  to  show  how  many  pieces 
were  made  out  of  the  lumber  sent  to  it,  how  much 
had  been  spoiled,  and  other  facts. 

Before  he  got  through,  the  grumbler  was  be- 
wildered with  the  many  things  which  had  to  be 
watched,  and  "allowed"  that  he  would  rather  go 
back  to  the  shop  than  have  to  look  after  all  that. 

Keeping  the  group  in  order  means  that  every- 
body in  the  group,  from  the  laborer  who  cleans 
up  the  yard  to  the  president  of  the  company, 
must  have  his  own  work  laid  out  so  that  every 


150  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

man  is  doing  his  part  of  the  work  and  not  doing 
something  useless  and  confusing  to  the  system. 
Every  man's  work  must  be  understood  so  that 
the  whole  plan  may  be  kept  ahead  of  the 
requirements. 

Every  Man  Must  Know  His  Job. — Everyone 
in  an  industrial  organization  must  have  his  job 
thoroughly  understood  if  the  organization  is  to 
go  along  smoothly  and  without  any  confusion. 
Not  only  is  it  necessary  for  everyone  to  hold 
his  job  and  understand  it,  but  all  these  jobs  must 
be  laid  out  so  that  the  work  will  go  forward  from 
first  to  last  without  a  hitch  and  without  a  lot  of 
people  waiting  for  other  people  to  decide  what 
they  are  going  to  do. 

If  the  job  is  to  make  one  hundred  automobiles 
in  a  day,  then  all  the  parts,  material,  and  wrork 
must  be  in  the  exact  proportion  for  the  one  hun- 
dred cars.  One  hundred  frames  are  needed,  but 
about  three  hundred  thousand  bolts  and  nuts  will 
be  used.  One  hundred  carbureters  are  enough, 
but  it  will  take  many  more  piston  rings. 

Perhaps  some  of  the  parts  need  more  care  and 
better  workmanship;  then  more  time  must  be 
allowed  for  the  work  in  order  to  permit  the 
men  to  put  it  through  in  the  required  quantity. 
This  orderly  progress  must  be  recorded  so  that 
the  time,  the  tools,  and  the  men  required  for  each 
part  of  the  work  can  be  recorded  and  every  item 
of  expense  determined.  The  cost  of  each  part 
must  be  known  and  the  cost  of  each  operation 
determined.     In  that  way  only  is  it  possible  to 


The  Foreman  and  the  Product  151 

ascertain   the   total   cost  of  the   completed   auto- 
mobile. 

The  human  side  of  the  matter  lies  in  the  proper 
definition  of  each  man's  work  and  the  accurate 
recording  of  its  results.  It  means  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  workers  so  that  every  job  will  pro- 
duce just  the  quantity  and  quality  required  to 
complete  the  whole  machine — an  automobile  ready 
to  be  sold  to  the  customer  at  a  profit  to  the 
company. 


Section  IV 
The  Foreman  and  the  Product 

Intelligent  Thought  Precedes  Intelligent  Labor. 
We  must  always  bear  in  mind  the  fact  that  the 
intelligence  of  man  preceded  the  making  of  useful 
material;  and  that  nothing  ever  became  useful  un- 
til intelligent  thought  had  been  put  upon  the 
possibilities  of  its  use  and  intelligent  labor  had 
been  given  to  making  it  useful. 

For  everything  we  use  as  materials  in  our  work, 
we  are  indebted  to  thousands  of  other  men  who 
have  worked  through  past  centuries  in  the  effort 
to  improve  these  materials  so  that  they  might  be 
useful  to  us. 

We  are  apt  to  forget  that  all  these  raw  ma- 
terials— gold,  silver,  copper,  iron,  wool,  cotton — 
were  of  no  use  to  us  until  man  applied  his  think- 
ing powers  and  his  observation  to  determining 
what  they  might  be  used  for  and  then  found  ways 


152  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

to  prepare  them  for  use.  When  we  use  any  of 
these  materials  in  our  work,  we  are  the  direct 
inheritors  of  the  patient  study  and  labor  of  all 
the  thoughtful  workers  who  have  gone  before 
and,  by  their  thought  and  skill,  have  left  us  a 
richer  knowledge  and  larger  means  for  enjoying 
the  materials  which  they  discovered  as  well  as  the 
original  methods  of  making  them  useful.  If  this 
is  true  of  the  materials,  it  is  true  just  as  well  of 
the  tools  with  which  these  materials  are  turned 
into  useful  products. 

The  discovery  of  the  plane  and  the  saw  must 
have  required  years  and  years  of  patient  thought 
and  study  before  they  lessened  the  work  of  our 
forefathers,  by  a  great  deal,  in  producing  the 
necessary  things  for  their  comfort.  It  is  even  use- 
less to  speculate  how  long  it  took  for  the  human 
race  to  learn  how  to  comb  and  spin  the  fleece  of 
sheep  and  to  make  cloth  out  of  it  which  could  be 
worn  instead  of  raw  skins  with  the  fleece  still  on 
them. 

We  have  thousands  of  different  tools  today, 
magnificent  in  their  size  and  almost  unbelievable 
in  their  capacity,  which  became  possible  because 
some  man  or  men  thought  out  how  these  tools 
might  be  made  and  then  put  in  the  study  and 
labor  necessary  to  make  them  according  to  their 
previous  thoughts. 

We  have  all  of  us  smiled  a  little  at  the  inventor 
who  spent  all  his  money  and  years  of  his  life  in 
attempting  to  make  a  new  machine  or  a  new  tool; 
but  we  have  benefited  by  that  study  in  the  things 


The  Foreman  and  the  Product  153 

which  we  make  today  and  in  the  conveniences 
of  life  which  they  produce.  Every  tool  that  we 
use  is  a  part  of  the  inheritance  that  came  to  us 
from  other  men,  and  it  is  itself  a  visible  re- 
minder of  the  obligation  we  owe  to  other  men  to 
pass  on  the  kind  of  inheritance  which  we  have 
received.  The  tools  with  which  we  work  repre- 
sent the  service  rendered  to  us  in  time,  thought, 
and  skill  by  other  men,  and  the  product  which  we 
turn  out  represents  our  discharge  of  an  obligation 
to  be  serviceable  to  other  men. 

What  Is  Production? — Production  is  the  art  of 
taking  the  material  and  fabricating  it  with  the 
tools  which  are  available  to  us  so  that  it  will 
become  useful  to  us  and  to  somebody  else.  The 
material  is  what  we  get  from  other  workers,  and 
our  job  is  to  alter  it  or  combine  it  with  similar  or 
different  materials  by  the  use  of  hands  and  tools  in 
order  that  it  may  be  serviceable.  It  is  necessary 
for  us  to  arrange  the  tools  so  that  we  can  get  the 
maximum  of  quality  and  quantity  in  executing 
the  service  and,  in  turn,  we  expect  that  those  who 
hand  us  the  material  and  who  supply  the  tools 
will  produce  their  maximum  in  quality  and 
quantity. 

The  three  elements  of  our  service  are  the  ma- 
terial which  we  receive,  the  tools  with  which  we 
work,  and  the  arrangement  by  which  we  take  care 
of  the  operations  we  are  to  perform  as  a  group 
of  workers.  The  efficiency  of  the  work  depends 
upon  the  delivery  of  the  material  in  the  quantity 
and    of   the    kind    required    for    the    work,    and 


154  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

the  keeping  of  the  tools  in  such  condition  that 
they  will  perform  the  work  with  the  accuracy  and 
speed  required,  so  that  the  work  can  be  done  with 
the  least  confusion  and  with  the  simplest  possible 
movement  in  connection  with  its  handling. 

In  a  general  way,  these  matters  are  arranged 
in  accordance  with  the  purpose  of  the  job  and  the 
part  which  it  plays  in  the  production  of  the  whole 
factory  or  shop.  But  the  details  of  this  arrange- 
ment in  connection  with  the  group  with  which  you 
are  concerned  will  require  close  study  on  your  part 
because  they  have  so  much  bearing  upon  the  work 
which  is  accomplished. 

Everything  in  the  surroundings  of  the  work 
reacts  upon  the  quality  and  the  quantity  of  the 
work  which  the  individual  worker  can  turn  out. 
The  material  which  has  cost  the  energy,  labor, 
and  study  of  other  men  should  not  be  carelessly 
used  and  spoiled  because  of  the  attitude  of  the 
individual  who  works  with  it.  No  man  likes  to 
do  work  unless  it  is  useful  and  is  so  accepted. 
The  man  who  has  spent  his  time  and  labor  and 
thought  in  producing  the  materials  which  you  use 
has  put  the  other  workers  who  will  use  that  ma- 
terial under  an  obligation  to  give  it  as  good  ser- 
vice as  they  have  obtained  from  him. 

When  the  material  is  not  delivered  to  the 
worker  in  the  quantity  and  of  the  kind  required, 
this  lack  of  care  induces  a  carelessness  on  the  part 
of  the  worker  who  must  use  the  material.  Where 
the  tools  are  not  arranged  to  give  the  most  con- 
venient service  with  the  greatest  efficiency,  it  is  not 


The  Foreman  and  the  Product  155 

long  before  the  worker's  idea  of  efficiency  is  af- 
fected adversely. 

All  the  things  which  are  a  part  of  the  job  of 
the  individual  worker  of  your  group  have  required 
the  service  of  other  men  in  their  production,  and 
they  must  be  used  with  care  and  efficiency  if  your 
own  workers  are  to  fulfil  their  part  in  the  total 
service. 

The  Purpose  of  Labor. — The  purpose  of  the 
material,  the  tools,  the  arrangement,  and  the 
labor  of  the  worker  is  the  article  which  this 
combination  produces.  The  object  is  to  provide 
some  useful  product  which  will  be  of  service  to 
humanity.  The  thing  which  is  being  produced 
in  the  factory  or  in  the  shop,  or  which  is  being 
produced  in  the  warehouse  or  on  the  railroad  in 
the  form  of  service,  has  gone  through  the  very 
same  process  which  we  described  in  the  preceding 
paragraphs. 

Nobody  ever  made  anything  without  first  think- 
ing about  how  it  might  be  made,  and  then  trying 
to  produce  the  thing  which  had  been  created  in 
his  mind.  Every  so  often,  a  lot  of  men,  who  are 
engaged  in  producing  shovels,  or  cloth,  or  some- 
thing else,  talk  about  the  theorist  wTho  draws  blue 
prints  or  who  suggests  what  might  be  done,  and 
then  argue  with  each  other  as  to  which  part  of 
the  work  is  the  most  valuable.  Originally,  it  was 
all  done  by  one  man.  He  thought  out  what  he 
might  make  with  the  wood  or  the  iron  or  what- 
ever materials  he  was  using,  then  he  planned  how 


156  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

he  might  make  it,  and  endeavored  to  produce  what 
was  in  his  mind. 

The  purpose  of  labor  and  production  is 
to  add  value  to  raw  materials  by  changing 
their  form,  quality,  or  location  so  that  they 
may  the  better  satisfy  the  needs  of  man. 

All  of  the  Processes  Are  Necessary. — Theory 
is  that  part  of  the  wTork  which  is  concerned  with 
what  may  be  done  and  how  it  may  be  done.  Prac- 
tice is  that  part  of  the  work  which  is  concerned 
with  bringing  into  being  what  theory  has  planned. 

It  is  not  probable  that  the  old  hand  worker, 
who  was  a  theorist  and  practician  combined,  suc- 
ceeded in  producing  the  thing  as  he  had  it  in  his 
mind  the  first  time.  He  produced  something,  saw- 
where  it  was  wrong,  thought  a  little  more,  found 
out  how  he  could  improve  it  and  produced  some- 
thing else  a  little  better.  So,  in  modern  practice, 
the  designer  studies  out  wThat  might  be  done  to 
make  a  useful  product  more  useful  and  puts  that 
down  on  paper  so  that  the  thing  itself  can  be 
made  from  the  pictures  of  it.  He  takes  the  ma- 
terials which  he  can  get  and  the  tools  with  which 
the  work  can  be  done  and  decides  how  the  article 
should  be  made,  and  then  the  practical  men  take 
hold  of  it  and  see  if  they  can  do  it. 

When  the  thing  is  completed  it  is  not  as  good 
as  they  hoped  for.  It  needs  changing  here  and 
there ;  sometimes  it  could  be  made  to  do  the  work 
better  if  new  materials  could  be  used;  sometimes 
it  could  be  done  better  if  new  tools  could  be  made. 
Therefore,   the  man  who  is  thinking  about  how 


The  Foreman  and  the  Product  157 

these  things  might  be  made  more  useful  is  always 
trying  to  get  better  materials  and  better  tools 
for  the  purpose. 

Every  time  a  new  design  is  made,  it  is  good  in 
some  respects  and  in  other  respects  it  is  not  so 
good.  Observations  are  then  made  for  the  pur- 
pose of  perfecting  the  design.  This  means  that 
the  designer  must  be  acquainted  with  the  material 
and  the  tools  and  the  purpose  of  the  product;  and 
all  the  men  engaged  in  producing  it  should  be 
acquainted  with  the  same  things  in  addition  to 
the  design.  It  is  obvious  that  the  designer  of 
cloth  has  an  entirely  different  set  of  conditions  to 
meet  from,  say,  the  designer  of  a  crane,  and  that 
no  matter  how  much  thought  the  crane  man  puts 
upon  designing  cloth  he  could  not  produce  valu- 
able results,  nor  could  the  cloth  designer  produce 
a  crane. 

The  object  of  each  is  to  think  out  the  best  ways 
in  which  the  material  can  be  handled  by  the  tools 
to  produce,  with  the  least  difficulty,  a  useful  article. 
All  the  things  which  enter  into  the  product  are, 
after  all,  primarily  the  result  of  man's  intelligent 
thought  and  only  secondarily  the  result  of  his 
physical  skill. 

Thought  Must  Be  Put  into  the  Work. — It 
makes  no  difference  what  work  the  man  is  en- 
gaged in,  the  quality  and  quantity  of  his  work 
will  depend  a  good  deal  upon  his  thought  about 
the  matter;  and  no  work  will  be  done  as  well  as 
it  might  be  done  if  intelligence  is  not  used  in  con- 
nection with  it.     There  are  four  items  in  connec- 


158  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

tion  with  the  product  which  indicate  its  com- 
parative value  among  products  of  the  same  kind 
and  which  relate  to  each  other  so  closely  that 
they  cannot  be  considered  separately.  These  are 
the  design,  the  structure,  the  quality,  and  the  pur- 
pose of  the  product.  It  is  to  fulfil  these  four 
elements  in  their  proper  relation  to  each  other 
that  all  the  work  of  industry  is  going  on. 

The  gang  of  laborers  who  are  cutting  down  an 
embankment  in  order  to  provide  more  railroad 
tracks  are  given  that  job  because  the  railroads 
must  move  more  products  from  the  place  where 
they  are  made  to  the  place  where  they  are  to  be 
used.  The  railroad  is  designed  to  provide  the 
maximum  service  in  this  respect.  It  is  constructed 
in  order  to  give  this  maximum  service  with  the 
least  confusion,  and  its  quality  is  directly  reflected 
in  the  character  of  the  service  which  it  can  render. 

The  railroad  is  designed  to  move  the  largest 
amount  of  goods  and  the  largest  number  of  people 
with  the  greatest  speed  and  safety.  The  whole 
structure  of  the  railroads  is  put  together  with  this 
in  mind.  The  whole  organization  has  been  ar- 
ranged in  order  to  provide  the  best  quality  of  this 
service  with  the  largest  capacity  for  it.  The  pur- 
pose for  which  the  railroad  is  intended  thus  gov- 
erns the  character  of  its  design,  the  size  and  kind 
of  construction,  and  the  quality  of  the  service. 

From  time  to  time,  the  improvements  in  these 
designs,  in  the  structures,  and  in  the  organization 
are  not  sufficiently  rapid  to  take  care  of  the  de- 
mands for  service.     The  whole  problem  of  indus- 


The  Foreman  and  the  Product  1 59 

try  is  concerned  with  thinking  out  and  arranging 
improvements  in  the  plan,  in  the  structure,  and  in 
the  quality  of  the  product  so  that  it  may  serve  its 
purpose  better  and  therefore  bring  more  con- 
venience and  comfort  to  everybody. 

We  Are  Dependent  on  Each  Other. — The 
clothes  that  you  buy  at  the  store,  the  furniture 
that  you  need  in  the  house,  and  all  the  other  items 
that  mean  comfort  and  convenience  in  your  life 
have  been  made  by  other  men  for  your  use,  and 
the  value  of  their  service  is  in  exact  proportion 
to  the  usefulness  of  these  things.  In  turn,  they 
are  dependent  upon  you  for  some  of  their  con- 
veniences and  necessaries,  and  your  service  is  an 
essential  part  of  the  machinery  of  service  for  the 
manufacture  of  products  which  are  useful.  All 
this  work  must  go  on  at  the  same  time — yours, 
mine,  and  the  work  of  thousands  of  other  men 
who  are  engaged  in  designing,  constructing,  or 
distributing  products  anywhere  in  the  world. 

The  value  of  this  depends  not  so  much  upon 
your  work  or  my  work,  but  upon  all  of  us  working 
together.  And  it  is  because  modern  industry  has 
made  it  possible  for  us  to  work  together  in  this 
service  that  we  are  able  to  enjoy  conveniences 
which  no  other  century  has  provided. 


160  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Questions  for  You  to  Answer 

1.  What  is  the  lesson  to  be  learned  from  the 
story  of  Foreman  Skinner? 

2.  What  are  the  two  chief  responsibilities  of  the 
foreman? 

3.  What  is  the  value  of  the  Daily  Idle  Machine 
Report? 

4.  What  values  are  to  be  obtained  from  keeping 
a  Machine  Record  Chart? 

5.  What  purpose  is  served  by  making  Delay  Re- 
ports? 

6.  How  does  a  Layout  Sheet  help  in  getting  the 
work  done  ? 

7.  What  should  a  Production  or  Job  Card  show 
and  why  should  they  be  absolutely  accurate  ? 

8.  What  does  the  Man  Record  Chart  show? 

9.  What  is  the  value  of  production  records? 

10.  How  does  environment  affect  the  individual? 

11.  How  far  is  the  foreman  responsible  for  bad 
working  conditions? 

12.  Why  is  group  organization  necessary  in  mod- 
ern industry? 

13.  What  would  you  say  as  to  the  necessity  of  sys- 
tem in  group  organization? 

14.  What  is  the  purpose  of  industrial  labor? 

15.  To  what  extent  are  all  the  processes  in  a  plant 
dependent  on  each  other? 


Chapter  4 


Part  I 
DEPARTMENTAL  RELATIONSHIPS 


Part  II 

THE  FOREMAN 
AND  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 


Part  I:    The  Job 

DEPARTMENTAL  RELATIONSHIPS 

Section  I 
Service  Organized  for  the  Foreman 

Service  and  Democracy, — The  days  of  autoc- 
racy in  industry  are  numbered.  It  is  becoming 
more  difficult  each  day  to  get  adequate  produc- 
tion in  a  shop  where  all  the  power  is  in  the 
hands  of  one  man.  There  is  an  irresistible  move- 
ment in  American  industry  toward  a  more  equal 
distribution  of  this  authority  and  responsibility. 
As  responsibility  is  shared  by  a  greater  number 
of  men,  it  becomes  more  necessary  for  them  to 
cooperate.  If  a  plant  is  to  be  successful,  the 
various  parts  of  it  must  be  well  administered  and 
each  must  render  the  necessary  service  to  the 
other  parts. 

The  new  type  of  foreman  appreciates  this  fact 
and  knows  that  the  best  foreman  is  the  one  who 
renders  the  best  service — who  gives  most  help  to 
all  those  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact,  because 
it  is  only  in  that  way  that  he  can  permanently  suc- 
ceed in  getting  work  done. 

Democracy,  in  the  mind  of  the  modern  foreman, 
means  equality  of  opportunity.  Industry  is  reach- 
ing out  for  a  greater  degree  of  democracy  and 
the  foreman  can  do  his  share — and  it  is  a  large 
share — by  giving  fair  play  and  equality  of  oppor- 
tunity to  those  under  his  control.    The  success  of 


164  .  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

this  more  democratic  industry  depends  largely  on 
the  help  the  foreman  gives  to  the  workman,  the 
other  foremen,  the  superintendent,  the  owner  of 
the  business,  and  the  public. 

Giving  service  is  not  an  easy  task.  It  takes  a 
great  deal  more  brain-power,  energy,  and  self- 
control  than  it  does  to  exact  service  from  other 
people — that  only  takes  lung  power  and  muscle; 
but  the  new  type  of  foreman  has  that  brain-power, 
energy,  and  self-control,  and,  more  than  that,  an 
unselfish  attitude  that  makes  him  enjoy  giving 
more  than  getting. 

On  the  other  hand,  all  departments  of  the  plant 
must  serve  the  foreman,  else  he  cannot  fully 
utilize  the  methods  outlined  in  this  course  and  get 
the  work  done  on  time  and  at  lowest  cost.  While 
the  foreman  is  rendering  service  to  the  other  de- 
partments, he  expects  and  must  receive  hearty  and 
ungrudging  cooperation  from  his  associate  super- 
visors and  from  all  others  holding  managerial 
positions.  In  no  other  way  can  democracy  in  in- 
dustry be  attained;  and  in  no  other  way  is  it  possi- 
ble to  utilize  equipment,  machinery,  and  men  to 
best  possible  advantage. 

All  Departments  Help  the  Foreman. — In  a 
large  plant  there  are  a  number  of  service  depart- 
ments which  are  organized  to  help  the  foreman. 
It  is  obviously  impossible  for  a  foreman  to  do  his 
real  job  of  getting  work  done  by  bringing  to- 
gether the  workman,  the  material,  the  machine, 
and  the  process,  if  he  has  to  design  his  own  tools, 
jigs,  and  fixtures,  interview  all  applicants  for  em- 


Service  Organized  for  the  Foreman        1 65 

ployment,  or  keep  his  own  stock  of  materials.  In 
the  well-organized  plant  these  things  are  done  for 
the  foreman  in  order  to  leave  him  free  to  get 
things  done. 

The  wise  superintendent  tries  to  make  the  best 
use  of  the  facilities  of  these  auxiliary  depart- 
ments, for  he  realizes  that  better  results  can  be 
obtained  by  placing  in  charge  of  such  departments 
men  who  are  specially  fitted  for  that  work.  A 
good  buyer,  in  charge  of  a  department  which  pur- 
chases materials  and  supplies  for  the  whole  plant, 
can  undoubtedly  secure  better  prices  and  deliveries 
than  if  the  buying  were  done  by  a  dozen  different 
foremen.  A  man  in  charge  of  repairs  throughout 
the  plant  is  able  to  devote  his  entire  time  and 
thought  to  the  maintenance  of  equipment  and  can 
get  better  results  than  the  foremen,  to  whom  the 
matter  is  only  a  side  issue. 

Repair  Department  Service. — In  order  to  se- 
cure service  from  the  Repair  Department,  the 
foreman  tells  the  head  of  that  department  what 
he  wants  done  and  when,  with  whatever  other  in- 
formation may  be  of  value  to  the  repairman.  This 
information  is  written  by  the  foreman  or  his  clerk 
on  a  "Repair  Order,"  of  which  there  are  three 
copies,  white,  yellow,  and  blue.  A  form  for  this 
order  is  given  on  pages  168  and  169.  On  this 
order  he  shows : 

Number  of  machine  to  be  repaired. 
Name  of  operator. 

Whether  the  machine  is  partly  or  totally  dis- 
abled. 


166  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

What  parts  are  broken  or  worn. 

What  caused  the  breakdown. 

What  work  was  in  machine  at  the  time  (in 
order  to  indicate  the  relative  importance  of 
the  repair) . 

Date  by  which  repairs  should  be  completed. 

Date  on  which  machine  will  be  available  for 
repairs  (the  time  between  these  two  dates 
should  be  as  great  as  possible). 

The  foreman  sends  the  white  and  yellow  copies 
of  this  order  to  the  Repair  Department  and  places 
the  blue  copy  in  a  file  marked  "Repairs  Pending," 
in  his  own  department. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  head  of  a  Repair  Depart- 
ment: 

To  get  repairs  done  as  quickly  and  as  well  as 
possible. 

To  record  the  cost  of  keeping  individual  ma- 
chines in  repair. 

The  head  of  this  department  handles  his  repair 
orders  in  the  same  way  as  the  foreman  of  a  pro- 
ductive department  handles  his  shop  orders,  ex- 
cept that,  instead  of  filing  them  by  machine  num- 
bers, he  files  his  orders  by  the  individual  work- 
men or  gangs  of  workmen  who  are  to  do  the 
work.  He  arranges  his  Order  of  Work  sheet  in 
the  same  way,  showing  what  work  each  man  or 
each  gang  is  to  do  the  following  day.  His  Delay 
Report  lists  the  repair  orders  he  knows  should  be 
done  the  following  day  but  which  he  will,  for 
some  reason,  be  unable  to  do.  His  Man  Record 
Charts  are  the  same  as  those  used  in  a  productive 


Service  Organized  for  the  Foreman        167 

department,  although  each  job  must  be  estimated 
separately  since  so  few  of  them  are  repeated. 

On  the  backs  of  the  yellow  and  white  copies  of 
his  repair  orders,  the  head  of  the  Repair  Depart- 
ment writes: 

Operations  done. 
Workman  who  did  them. 
Hours  spent  on  each  operation. 

Either  in  his  own  department  or  in  the  Cost 
Department  the  man's  rate  is  entered,  his  wages 
extended,  and  the  cost  of  material  with  the  over- 
head expense  added  in  order  to  get  the  total  cost 
of  that  repair  job. 

When  the  work  has  been  completed,  the  Repair 
Department  sends  the  white  copy  of  the  order 
back  to  the  department  in  which  it  originated,  and 
the  yellow  copy  is  placed  on  file  either  in  the 
Repair  Department  or  the  Cost  Department. 
The  foreman  of  the  originating  department 
destroys  the  blue  copy,  which  has  been  filed  under 
"Repairs  Pending,"  and  places  the  white  copy  in 
a  permanent  file  by  machine  number.  From  this 
file  he  can  at  any  time  tell  the  cost  of  repairs  to  a 
certain  machine  over  any  period  of  time.  He  also 
has,  in  his  department,  records  of  the  cost  of  idle- 
ness of  that  machine  due  to  repairs.  When  he 
adds  the  cost  of  repairs  to  the  cost  of  idleness  due 
to  those  repairs,  he  gets  a  figure  which  he  can 
compare  with  the  cost  of  a  new  machine.  With 
this  information  in  hand  it  is  not  difficult  to  decide 
whether  or  not  an  old  machine  should  be  sold  or 
scrapped. 


168 


The  Foreman  and  His  Job 


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Service  Organized  for  the  Foreman        169 


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170  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Tool  Room  Service. — If  tools,  jigs,  and  fixtures 
are  made  in  a  separate  department  or  tool  room, 
the  head  of  that  department  must  know  what  is 
wanted  and  when.  This  information  usually 
comes  from  the  Superintendent's  Office  in  the 
form  of  a  shop  order,  possibly  with  a  blue  print 
and  detailed  specifications  made  up  by  the  Engi- 
neering Department.  These  orders  sometimes 
originate  with  the  foreman.  A  productive  depart- 
ment orders  direct  from  the  tool  room  those  tools 
which  are  regularly  kept  in  stock  and  also  sends 
through  orders  for  the  sharpening  of  tools. 

The  head  of  the  tool  room  handles  his  orders 
for  tools  in  the  same  way  that  the  foreman  in  a 
productive  department  handles  his  shop  orders. 
The  Order  of  Work  sheets,  Delay  Reports,  and 
Man  Record  Charts  are  identical  and  his  costs 
are  arrived  at  in  the  same  manner. 

Service  from  the  Superintendent's  Office. — It  is 
the  duty  of  the  Superintendent's  Office  (it  may 
be  known  as  the  Manufacturing  Department  or 
the  Planning  Department)  to  tell  the  foreman 
what  work  is  to  be  done  and  when.  This  is  done 
on  Shop  Orders,  as  outlined  in  a  previous  chapter, 
with  the  date  of  beginning  shown  for  each  opera- 
tion so  that  there  will  not  be  any  doubt  as  to 
precedence  of  work.  The  Superintendent's  Office 
sends  the  necessary  orders  for  tools  to  the  tool 
room  and  for  materials  to  the  storeroom,  with 
definite  instructions  as  to  when  they  should  be 
ready.  Copies  of  these  orders  are  given  to  the 
foreman  of  the  department  in  which  the  work  is 


Service  Organized  for  the  Foreman        171 

to  be  done  so  that  he  can  call  for  the  tools  and 
materials  when  he  is  ready  to  use  them. 

The  Superintendent's  Office  checks  the  Order 
of  Work  sheets  received  from  the  foremen  to  see 
that  the  orders  are  being  done  in  the  sequence 
desired  according  to  the  latest  information. 

The  Superintendent's  Office  helps  the  various 
foremen  avoid  the  delays  which  they  list  on  their 
Delay  Reports.  This  office  also  records  the 
progress  of  work  in  order  to  see  that  its  plans 
are  followed. 

Storeroom  Service. — It  is  the  duty  of  the  Store- 
keeping  Department  to  have  material  ready  when 
it  is  needed.  The  Superintendent's  Office,  when  it 
issues  orders  to  a  productive  department,  advises 
the  storekeeper  what  material  will  be  needed  and 
when,  so  that  it  can  be  reserved  and  delivered  to 
the  foreman  when  he  calls  for  it. 

The  methods  used  by  the  storekeeper  in  han- 
dling his  material  are  the  same  as  those  outlined 
in  Chapter  III  for  the  foreman  to  follow  in  keep- 
ing his  own  stock  of  tools  and  supplies.  In  a  large 
storeroom,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  keep  a  set 
of  balance  cards  on  which  receipts  and  issues  are 
entered.  These  card  records  are  checked  up  with 
the  amounts  in  the  storeroom  whenever  the  order 
point  is  reached  or  the  supply  is  exhausted,  in 
order  to  help  the  storekeeper  avoid  running  out  of 
stock.  These  balance  cards  also  tell  him  at  any 
time  the  amount  he  has  in  stock  without  an  actual 
count  being  necessary. 


172  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Inspection  Department  Service. — How  stand- 
ards of  quality  are  agreed  upon  by  the  Sales  De- 
partment, the  Engineering  Department,  and  the 
superintendent  was  outlined  in  a  previous 
chapter.  If  there  is  a  chief  inspector,  it  is  his 
duty  to  see  that  these  standards  of  quality  are 
lived  up  to.  If  there  is  no  chief  inspector,  this 
duty  falls  upon  the  foreman;  but  he  should  not, 
in  any  case,  have  to  determine  the  inspection 
standards.  It  is  the  foreman's  duty,  however,  to 
tell  the  inspectors  what  work  they  are  to  do  first 
if  they  have  more  than  they  can  complete  in  a 
day.  A  copy  of  his  Order  of  Work  sheet  will  tell 
the  inspectors  the  proper  sequence  of  work. 

If  inspection  is  done  in  an  entirely  separate  de- 
partment, the  chief  inspector  is  given  a  copy  of 
the  Shop  Order  on  which  inspection  is  shown  as 
one  of  the  operations.  He  handles  his  Shop 
Orders  just  as  any  foreman  would,  also  his  Order 
of  Work  Sheets  and  his  Delay  Reports. 

As  was  pointed  out  in  a  previous  chapter,  the 
closer  the  inspector  is  to  the  machine  the  more 
effective  will  be  the  results  of  his  work.  If  he  is 
capable,  not  only  of  picking  out  the  flaws  in  a 
piece  of  work,  but  also  of  knowing  the  reason  for 
the  error  and  teaching  the  operator  how  to  avoid 
that  error  in  future,  he  will  have  a  much  more 
constructive  influence  on  the  shop. 

Engineering  Service. — If  the  foreman  is  asked 
to  work  out  the  processes  of  manufacture,  a  great 
deal  of  his  time  will  be  taken  away  from  the  actual 
running  of  his  department,  and  it  is  for  this  reason 


Service  Organized  for  the  Foreman        173 

that  such  work  is  usually  done  by  specially  trained 
men  in  an  Engineering  Department.  In  many 
plants  this  work  is  carried  further  and,  after  the 
best  method  is  worked  out,  it  is  written  down  to- 
gether with  the  time  each  operation  should  take. 
Such  departments  have  a  vast  fund  of  knowledge 
at  their  disposal  which  the  foreman  can  use  to 
advantage.  The  actual  value  of  his  work  de- 
pends entirely  on  the  use  that  is  made  of  it  by  the 
foreman, 

Employment  Department  Service. — In  order  to 
make  use  of  the  service  which  the  Employment 
Department  is  ready  to  render,  the  foreman  must 
write  out  a  "Requisition  for  Help,"  specifying  the 
abilities  and  qualifications  necessary  in  the  desired 
worker. 

When  it  receives  this  requisition,  the  Employ- 
ment Department  communicates  with  its  sources 
of  supply  and  selects  from  the  applicants  those 
who  appear  to  be  best  fitted  for  the  work.  The 
foreman  then  has  an  opportunity  to  interview 
these  men  and  determine  whether  or  not  they  are 
capable.  However,  it  is  only  when  a  new  man 
is  tried  out  on  the  work  that  an  intelligent  estimate 
of  his  ability  can  be  arrived  at.  Whenever  ad- 
visable, the  foreman  will,  after  securing  the 
superintendent's  approval,  send  to  the  Employ- 
ment Department  a  "request  for  transfer  of  em- 
ploye" or  a  "request  for  change  of  rate."  If  an 
employe  leaves,  the  foreman  makes  out  a  "notifi- 
cation of  leaving,"  which  he  sends  to  the  super- 
intendent and  to  the  Employment  Department  for 


174  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

approval,  and  a  "final  pay  order,"  which  he  sends 
to  the  Cost  Department.  The  forms  mentioned 
in  this  paragraph  will  be  given  in  Book  IV. 

Welfare  work  is  usually  looked  after  by  the 
head  of  the  Employment  Department  or  some  one 
delegated  to  do  that  work.  It  is  a  service  which 
is  of  great  value  to  the  foreman.  If  one  of  his 
men  is  taken  sick  or  injured,  the  hospital  gives  him 
expert  care.  If  lunches  are  served  and  baseball 
diamonds  and  handball  courts  provided,  his  em- 
ployes are  kept  in  better  condition  physically  and 
mentally  and  they  can  do  better  work. 

Purchasing  Department  Service. — A  requisition 
for  the  purchase  of  equipment  may  originate  with 
the  foreman,  the  Engineering  Department,  or  the 
Superintendent's  Office.  A  requisition  for  ma- 
terial originates  usually  in  the  Superintendent's 
Office  or  the  storeroom,  although  in  some  cases  it 
may  originate  with  the  foreman. 

These  requisitions  must  show : 

What  is  wanted,  with  full  specifica- 
tions as  to  quality  or  grade. 

Purpose  for  which  the  material  is 
to  be  used,  so  that  it  may  be 
charged  to  the  proper  account. 

Quantity  wanted. 

Date  when  required. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  Purchasing  Department  to 
obtain  quotations  from  supply  houses  for  all  ma- 
terials, supplies,  and  equipment.  After  consider- 
ing the  prices,   quality,   and  deliveries,   the   Pur- 


Service  to  Associates  175 

chasing  Department  decides  from  which  firm  to 
buy  and  makes  out  a  purchase  order.  It  is  the 
duty  of  the  Purchasing  Department  to  follow  that 
order  up  until  delivery  is  secured. 


Section  II 

Service  by  the  Foreman  for  His 
Associates 

Service  to  the  Workman. — A  good  foreman 
makes  it  his  business  to  remove  all  the  obstacles 
which  stand  in  the  way  of  his  men  in  order  to 
leave  them  free  to  do  their  jobs — the  things  which 
they  are  paid  to  do.  The  workman  who  thinks, 
knows  that  he  can  not  continue  indefinitely  to  get 
paid  for  a  good  day's  work  when  he  does  only 
half  a  day's  work,  and  he  resents  the  continued  re- 
currence of  difficulties  which  will  not  enable  him 
to  do  a  full  day's  work. 

The  foreman  who  removes  these  obstacles  re- 
leases the  energy  of  the  workman  and  allows  him 
to  make  use  of  his  creative  power.  America  is 
the  greatest  of  industrial  nations  and,  to  a  greater 
extent  than  in  any  other  country,  our  pursuits  of 
happiness  should  be  through  work,  for  if  a  man 
does  not  find  happiness  in  his  work  he  must  change 
his  attitude  toward  it  or  else  find  the  right  job. 
The  foreman  who  is  most  successful  in  removing 
the  obstacles  which  prevent  the  full  exercise  of  a 
workman's  ability  is  rendering  a  real  service  to 
that  man. 


176  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

The  foreman  helps  this  man  when  he  sees  that 
his  machine  is  in  condition  to  turn  out  good  work 
and  when  he  plans  the  movement  of  materials 
through  the  shop  so  that  the  man  will  not  have  to 
stop  his  work  and  hunt  for  material. 

The  foreman  helps  the  workman  when  he  issues 
the  necessary  orders  for  tools  and  follows  up  his 
orders  so  that  he  can  get  the  tools  to  the  work- 
man before  he  is  ready  to  use  them;  and  when  he 
keeps  the  necessary  supplies  on  hand,  a  lack  of 
which  would  compel  the  man  to  quit  work. 

The  foreman  helps  the  workman  when  he  gives 
him  the  necessary  instructions  as  to  what  he  is  to 
do,  when  he  is  to  do  it,  and  how;  also,  when  he 
takes  pains  to  see  that  these  instructions  are  under- 
stood. This  training  which  the  foreman  gives 
the  workman  is  possibly  the  greatest  service  he 
renders.  He  finds  out  what  kind  of  work  a  man 
is  best  fitted  to  do  and  gives  him  the  necessary 
training  to  enable  him  to  do  that  work  well.  He 
makes  good  workmen  out  of  poor  workmen. 
When  they  learn  to  do  even  one  job  well,  they 
get  a  different  outlook  on  life.  Men  who  for 
years  have  considered  themselves  "wage  slaves" 
gain  confidence  in  themselves  and  a  control  over 
themselves  which  makes  free  men  of  them.  They 
show  possibilities  which  were  entirely  unsuspected 
until  they  mastered  their  jobs. 

Protection  of  the  Workman. — The  foreman 
renders  service  to  the  workman  when  he  provides 
the  best  guards  and  safety  devices  and  good  work- 
ing conditions.     He  looks  at  the  shop  from  the 


Service  to  Associates  177 

point  of  view  of  the  workman  and  attempts  to 
give  him  as  safe  and  healthy  working  conditions 
as  he  would  maintain  in  his  own  home.  There  is 
no  more  reason  why  he  should  allow  a  machine  to 
he  unprotected  and  thereby  run  the  risk  of  catch- 
ing a  man's  sleeve  and  crushing  his  arm,  than  to 
leave  a  stairway  unprotected  at  home  and  endan- 
ger the  lives  of  his  family.  In  his  own  home  he 
would  not  think  of  eating  or  sleeping  in  an  unsani- 
tary basement,  and  in  his  shop  he  is  equally  careful 
not  to  allow  his  men  to  work  under  unhealthful 
conditions.  He  provides  as  much  light  as  possible 
by  keeping  the  windows  clean;  and  he  places  near- 
est the  windows  those  who  have  the  closest  work 
to  do.  When  there  is  not  sufficient  daylight,  he 
provides  good  general  illumination  and  places  ad- 
justable lights  over  the  machines. 

The  foreman  arranges  for  sufficient  heaters  to 
keep  the  department  warm  enough  in  winter  to 
enable  his  men  to  do  their  best  work,  and  provides 
whatever  ventilators  are  needed  to  keep  the  air 
fresh  and  protect  the  men  from  drafts.  He  does 
not  need  to  be  told  that  the  losses  due  to  the  slow 
work  of  men  in  cold  or  badly  ventilated  shops  are 
infinitely  greater  than  the  cost  of  heat  and  pure 
fresh  air. 

The  foreman  keeps  his  washrooms  and  lockers 
scrupulously  clean  and  does  not  allow  material  of 
any  kind  to  accumulate  on  the  floor  of  his  depart- 
ment. The  fact  that  he  keeps  the  shop  as  a  whole 
in  an  orderly  condition  has  a  direct  influence  on 


178  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

the  way  his  workmen  keep  their  tools  and  ma- 
chines. 

For  those  of  his  men  who  sit  down  the  foreman 
provides  stools  or  chairs  which  are  substantial  and 
are  carefully  adjusted  to  the  height  of  the  bench 
or  machine.  It  is  very  shortsighted  to  allow  a 
man  to  tire  himself  out,  month  after  month,  when 
a  chair,  if  conditions  permit,  would  considerably 
reduce  his  fatigue. 

Providing  safe  and  satisfactory  working  con- 
ditions is  a  real  service  to  the  workman,  but  the 
foreman  also  knows  that  such  service  results  in 
increased  profits  for  the  owner  of  the  business. 
Workmen  also  know  that  this  is  a  fact,  so  the 
foreman  takes  care  never  even  to  hint  that  he  is 
doing  the  men  a  favor  by  keeping  the  shop  clean 
and  safe. 

A  Buffer  for  the  Management. — It  is  the  fore- 
man who  interprets  the  management  to  the  work- 
men. If  he  is  dictatorial,  he  will  nullify  all  the 
broad-minded  policies  of  the  management.  If 
the  foreman  bases  his  decisions  on  impressions  or 
influence,  there  is  little  use  for  the  management  to 
attempt  to  better  its  treatment  of  workmen. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  management  is  in- 
clined to  be  autocratic,  the  foreman  can  get  at 
least  a  certain  measure  of  democracy  into  the 
management  of  his  own  department,  which  will 
slowly  but  surely  influence  the  policy  of  the  firm. 
He  can  show  how  much  better  results  can  be 
secured   from   a   department   run   by   democratic 


Service  to  Associates  179 

methods  than  by  the  old-fashioned  method  where 
"the  king  can  do  no  wrong." 

Divided  Responsibilities. — In  assigning  clear- 
cut  jobs  to  his  subordinates  and  avoiding  divided 
responsibilities,  the  foreman  helps  his  men  for  he 
makes  it  easier  for  them  to  make  good.  A  fore- 
man came  into  his  department  one  morning  and 
found  two  of  his  subordinates  in  a  heated  argu- 
ment. One  of  them  had  fired  a  boy  the  night 
before  and  the  other  insisted  that  he  had  no  right 
to  fire  him.  The  boy  had  been  working  for  both 
of  them  and  the  previous  night  he  had  made  a  mis- 
take. When  called  to  task,  he  had  talked  so  im- 
pudently that  the  man  he  had  been  working  for 
at  that  particular  time  fired  him.  The  boy  came 
back  next  morning  to  get  his  pay  envelope  only  to 
find  that  half  of  him  was  fired  and  half  was  not. 

Of  course  the  foreman  had  a  good  laugh  at 
the  situation,  but  at  the  same  time  he  realized  how 
impossible  it  was  for  a  boy  to  make  good  under 
such  circumstances  and  he  took  the  time  to  go 
over  the  rest  of  his  organization  and  see  that  there 
were  no  more  divided  responsibilities. 

Increased  Capacity  and  Rezvards.— -The  fore- 
man helps  the  workman  when  he  bases  his  wages 
on  the  amount  of  work  done,  for  he  gives  him  an 
incentive  to  increase  his  capacity  for  work.  When 
he  promotes  the  best  producers  to  more  difficult 
work  which  pays  better,  he  adds  the  stimulus  of 
promotion  to  the  increase  in  wages.  Although 
this  is  helping  the  workman,  it  is  of  course  only 


180  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

plain  justice  to  reward  him  according  to  the  ser- 
vice he  renders. 

Your  records  of  production  and  the  basing  of 
wages  and  promotion  on  those  records  gradually 
eliminate  special  privilege  of  all  kinds  in  the 
shop.  If  a  man  who  is  in  a  position  of  authority 
continually  fails  to  do  what  is  expected  of  him 
and  the  record  of  his  work  is  open  to  those  around 
him,  he  cannot  continue  to  hold  that  position  of 
authority.  He  will  usually  appreciate  that  fact 
in  time  to  save  himself  and  do  the  work  as  it 
should  be  done. 

By  this  method  of  keeping  individual  records 
of  production  and  of  systematically  attempting  to 
remove  the  obstacles  which  stand  in  the  way  of 
complete  accomplishment,  a  remarkable  degree  of 
cooperation  is  secured  and  possibilities  developed 
in  the  workman  which  would  otherwise  have  been 
impossible.  His  initiative  and  ambition  are  stimu- 
lated. The  foreman  gives  careful  consideration 
to  his  suggestions  for  improvements  which  will 
increase  his  output,  because  it  is  to  his  interest  to 
do  so  since  an  increase  in  output  will  lengthen 
the  foreman's  production  line  as  well  as  the 
operator's. 

The  workman  sees  the  man  whose  line  is  long- 
est, whose  production  is  greatest,  appointed  to 
the  position  of  sub-foreman  when  there  is  a  va- 
cancy. He  sees  the  sub-foreman  who  is  most  suc- 
cessful in  developing  his  group  of  men  become  a 
foreman.  As  he  watches  these  changes  take  place 
throughout    the    organization    and    positions    of 


Service  to  the  Management  181 

authority  given  to  men  who  "know  what  to  do  and 
how  to  do  it,"  he  sees  opening  up  before  him  pos- 
sibilities of  advancement  limited  only  by  his 
ability  and  his  energy. 

Service  to  Other  Foremen. — A  foreman  helps 
other  foremen  by  delivering  material  or  parts  in 
process  to  them  when  he  has  promised  to  do  so. 
If  conditions  beyond  his  control  make  it  impos- 
sible for  him  to  live  up  to  his  promises,  he  tells 
the  other  foreman  the  reason  and  makes  him  a 
new  promise  which  he  can  live  up  to.  Nothing 
in  the  foreman's  job  is  quite  so  exasperating  as 
the  chasing  up  of  material  which  has  not  come 
through  on  schedule. 

The  foreman  who  keeps  his  machines  running 
and  lives  up  to  his  schedules  enables  other  fore- 
men to  keep  their  machines  running  and  to  make 
good  their  promises. 

That  foreman  is  of  most  help  to  other  foremen 
who  is  frank  and  open  in  all  his  dealings,  prefers 
facts  to  opinions,  is  not  looking  for  credit — is,  in 
short,  the  typical,  straightforward  American  fore- 
man. 

Section  III 

Service  to  the  Management 
by  the  Foreman 

Service  to  the  Superintendent. — The  foreman 
helps  the  superintendent  when  he  makes  the  best 
possible  use  of  the  machines  in  the  department  of 
which  he  has  charge.     He  sends  copies   of  his 


182  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Machine  Record  Charts  to  the  superintendent  so 
that  he  can  see  how  well  his  equipment  is  being 
used  and  the  obstacles  which  prevent  him  from 
doing  as  well  as  he  would  like  to  do. 

The  superintendent  has  an  opportunity  to  talk 
over  the  charts  with  the  foreman  and  get  at  the 
detailed  reasons  for  idleness,  if  necessary.  If 
the  trouble  is  repairs,  the  superintendent  consults 
the  foreman  of  the  Repair  Department,  investi- 
gates weaknesses  of  machines,  and  arranges  to 
have  repairs  made  more  promptly.  If  idleness  of 
machines  is  caused  by  lack  of  help,  the  head  of  the 
Employment  Department  is  consulted  and,  if 
necessary,  the  wages  offered  are  raised  or  new 
sources  of  supply  are  opened  up.  In  short,  the 
superintendent  is  enabled  to  get  at  the  causes  of 
idleness  and  to  apply  the  necessary  remedies  and 
in  this  he  can  be  more  successful  than  any  single 
foreman,  because  of  his  greater  experience  and 
authority. 

The  superintendent  can  also  see  from  the  Ma- 
chine Record  Charts  the  effects  of  his  decisions  or 
instructions,  or,  if  no  effect  is  apparent,  he  can  find 
out  whether  or  not  his  instructions  have  been  fol- 
lowed. 

The  foreman  helps  the  superintendent  by  show- 
ing him  on  the  Man  Record  Charts  what  his  men 
are  accomplishing  and  what  prevents  them  from 
doing  more.  Here  again  the  superintendent  is 
given  an  opportunity  to  get  at  the  detailed  reasons 
for  idleness  and  to  use  his  broader  authority  in 
removing  obstacles.    He  can  see  how  well  his  men 


Service  to  the  Management  183 

are  fitted  to  do  the  work  assigned  to  them  and 
can  transfer  to  other  work  those  who  are  least 
fitted  for  their  jobs. 

These  charts  enable  the  superintendent,  not 
only  to  study  the  conditions  in  his  shop,  but  also  to 
see  very  clearly  any  tendencies  toward  poor  pro- 
duction and  to  take  whatever  steps  are  necessary 
to  guide  the  shop  in  the  way  he  wrants  it  to  go. 

The  foreman  helps  the  superintendent  when  he 
turns  out  his  orders  in  the  proper  sequence,  when 
he  reports  what  he  intends  to  do  and  what  he  has 
done,  and  when  he  calls  the  attention  of  the  super- 
intendent to  the  things  on  which  he  needs  help. 
This  sorts  out  for  the  superintendent  the  most  im- 
portant things  for  him  to  do  each  day  and  enables 
him  to  get  more  done  than  if  he  had  to  wralk 
around  his  shop  and  ask  each  foreman  what  his 
troubles  are.  Instead  of  spending  his  time  trying 
to  get  information,  he  devotes  it  to  removing 
obstacles. 

The  foreman  helps  the  superintendent  by  show- 
ing him  the  load  on  his  machines,  that  is,  the 
amount  of  work  ahead.  From  this  layout  he  can 
tell  how  long  the  machines  will  be  busy  with  the 
orders  he  already  has  in  hand.  This  enables  the 
superintendent  to  make  accurate  plans  for  the  use 
of  the  plant  as  a  whole  and,  if  necessary,  to  take 
up  new  work,  to  purchase  new  equipment,  or  to 
dispose  of  unused  equipment. 

The  foreman  shows  all  these  facts  to  his  super- 
intendent without  fear  or  favor,  with  the  result 
that  the  superintendent  can  keep  in  closer  touch 


184  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

with  the  shop  than  he  could  possibly  do  from  ver- 
bal reports  alone.  The  foreman  ean  also  secure 
from  the  superintendent  the  help  he  needs  with 
little  delay. 

Service  to  the  Cost  Department. — The  foreman 
sends  to  the  Cost  Department  his  production  cards 
(they  are  sometimes  called  time  or  job  cards) 
showing : 

What  work  was  done. 
Who  did  it. 

The  time  taken  to  do  it. 
What  was  paid  for  the  labor. 
The  machine  used. 

From  these  production  cards  the  Cost  Department 
makes  up  its  pay  roll  and  secures  records  of  the 
cost  of  the  work  done  in  the  shop. 

The  Cost  Department  tabulates  these  records 
and  sends  back  to  the  foreman  the  cost  of  work 
done  compared  with  previous  costs  or,  if  it  is 
special  work,  compared  with  estimated  costs. 
From  the  foreman's  point  of  view  the  only  reason 
for  keeping  cost  records  is  to  use  them  in  reducing 
future  costs. 

Service  to  the  Owner  of  the  Business. — The 
foreman  helps  the  owner  or  the  manager  by  re- 
ducing the  cost  of  manufacture  through  the  elimi- 
nation of  idleness  and  useless  work.  This  refers 
both  to  men  and  machines.  By  reducing  this 
burden  of  idleness  and  useless  labor,  the  foreman 
makes  it  possible  for  the  owner  to  pay  productive 


Service  to  the  Management  185 

workers  more  liberally  and  according  to  the 
amount  of  work  they  do.  He  thus  helps  to  build 
up  the  reputation  of  the  company  by  getting  work 
done  on  time,  at  a  reasonable  cost,  and  of  standard 
quality. 

The  ability  of  the  foreman  to  train  and  de- 
velop workmen  is  one  of  the  greatest  assets  of 
any  company,  for  the  value  of  an  industrial  plant 
is  measured  by  its  productive  capacity — the  ability 
of  its  organization  to  turn  out  goods — rather 
than  by  the  inventory  value  of  its  land,  buildings, 
and  equipment.  In  other  words,  the  value  of  a 
business  is  determined  by  the  rate  at  which  it  is 
moving  and  not  by  the  appraised  value  of  bricks 
and  mortar.  The  methods  used  by  the  new  type 
of  foreman  focus  the  attention  of  the  whole  plant 
on  production  and  show  the  progress  which  is 
being  made  toward  that  end. 

The  Owner  Relies  on  Reports. — Usually  it  is 
not  necessary  for  the  owner  to  follow  all  the  de- 
tails of  the  work  being  done  in  the  various  parts 
of  his  plant;  but  he  will  follow  the  progress  made 
on  the  principal  classes  into  which  the  output  can 
be  divided.  If  the  progress  made  on  one  of  these 
classes  is  satisfactory,  he  will  need  to  pay  very 
little  attention  to  it.  If,  however,  another  class 
of  work  is  behind  schedule,  he  can  call  for  the 
detailed  charts  which  are  in  the  hands  of  one  of 
his  foremen.  From  these  records  he  can  see  what 
particular  items  are  being  held  up  and  the  rea- 
sons. When  he  locates  the  cause  of  the  delay,  he 
can  concentrate  his  efforts  on  that  particular  prob- 


]86  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

lem  and  overcome  difficulties  which  to  his  sub- 
ordinates are  insurmountable. 

These  methods  make  it  unnecessary  for  the 
owner  or  general  manager  to  go  through  volumes 
of  reports  or  to  go  the  rounds  of  his  superinten- 
dents and  foremen  in  an  attempt  to  find  out  what 
work  is  not  progressing  satisfactorily.  His  sub- 
ordinates are  likely  to  minimize  the  importance 
of  delays  on  some  items  and  not  to  realize  the 
effect  a  short  delay  will  have  on  the  remainder  of 
the  work. 

By  providing  good  working  conditions  and  re- 
ducing the  fatigue  of  his  workmen,  the  foreman 
increases  their  output  and  directly  affects  the 
profits  of  the  company.  By  introducing  a  greater 
measure  of  democracy  in  his  own  department,  he 
places  his  organization  on  a  firmer  basis  and 
makes  it  easier  to  go  through  unsettled  conditions 
without  disturbance  to  production. 

On  the  charts  kept  by  the  foreman,  the  owner 
can  see  the  facts  in  regard  to  the  service  rendered 
by  the  various  members  of  his  organization,  and 
it  is  no  longer  possible  for  incapable  or  lazy  men 
to  occupy  positions  of  authority  without  the  own- 
er's knowledge. 

The  Foreman's  Reward. — When  a  foreman 
realizes  that  the  old  type  of  management  does 
not  render  the  proper  service  to  the  owners  of  the 
business  or  to  the  public,  and  that  it  oftens  works 
real  hardships  on  the  workmen,  he  determines 
that  his  shop  shall  be  so  well  managed  that  there 
will  be  fair  play  for  all.     He  finds  that  the  key 


Service  to  the  Management  187 

to  the  situation  is  idleness.  His  records  of  men 
and  machines  show  a  surprising  amount  of  idle- 
ness, but  a  study  of  the  reasons  makes  it  possible 
to  fix  the  responsibility  and  remove  the  causes. 

In  order  to  keep  his  machines  busy  and  to  en- 
able his  men  to  do  a  fair  day's  work,  he  installs 
simple  and  effective  methods  of  getting  work  done. 
These  methods  lay  facts  before  his  workmen  and 
himself  and  greatly  improve  their  relations. 
There  is  no  room  for  suspicion  and  no  oppor- 
tunity for  arbitrary  action.  Each  learns  that  it  is 
to  his  advantage  to  help  the  other.  The  work- 
man follows  the  foreman's  instructions  because 
they  enable  him  to  turn  out  more  work  and  to  get 
larger  wages.  The  foreman  devotes  more  atten- 
tion than  ever  before  to  the  training  of  his  work- 
men. Discontented  workmen  are  cured  instead 
of  being  fired.  Workmen  are  promoted  from  the 
bench  or  machine  to  positions  of  responsibility 
because  they  know  what  to  do. 

This  foreman  has  a  shop  which  is  "organized 
for  work"  and,  because  it  does  turn  out  work,  he 
gets  his  financial  reward  and,  even  better  than 
that,  he  has  the  satisfaction  of  doing  a  job  well 
and  of  rendering  adequate  service  to  all  those 
with  whom  he  comes  in  contact.  Instead  of  being 
a  drag  on  industry,  he  becomes  part  of  its  driving 
force. 

The  good  foreman  knows  that  he  can 
be  permanently  successful  only  when  he 
secures  full  justice  for  the  owner  and  for 
the  workmen. 


Part  II:    The  Foreman 

THE  FOREMAN 
AND  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER 

Section  I 
The  Foreman  and  the  Community 

Effects  of  Industries  on  the  Community. — Com- 
munities are  affected  by  the  industries  which  are 
maintained  within  their  borders  and  by  which  the 
communities  subsist.  Towns  even  take  on  their 
physical  characteristics  from  the  kind  of  work 
which  is  done  there  and  the  houses  in  which  the 
work  is  executed.  Workers  drift  from  town  to 
town  largely  because  they  have  no  deep  interest  in 
their  social  surroundings  and  do  not  feel  them- 
selves to  be  a  part  of  their  community  or  particu- 
larly important  in  its  considerations.  Many  of 
them  do  not  visualize  their  own  responsibility  to 
do  what  they  can  to  make  their  communities  bet- 
ter. Education  in  the  schools,  recreation,  neigh- 
borhood development,  parks,  transportation — 
these  things  are  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
worker  for  he  depends  upon  them,  almost  wholly, 
for  the  development  of  his  children,  the  health 
of  his  family,  and  the  amusement  of  himself.  He 
should,  therefore,  take  an  interest  in  community 
matters. 

A  good  part  of  the  wakeful  hours  of  each  day 
is   spent  getting  to  work,   working,   and  getting 


The  Foreman  and  the  Community         189 

home  from  work.  The  work  which  each  man  does 
colors  his  thinking,  and  makes  itself  felt  in  all  his 
actions,  both  in  the  factory  and  in  the  community. 

Not  long  ago,  a  meeting  was  called  to  discuss 
plans  for  improving  a  small  community  near  New 
York.  One  of  the  men  at  the  meeting  was  a 
skilled  mechanic  and  a  very  thoughtful  man.  He 
talked  with  his  pencil.  That  is  to  say,  he  sketched 
working  drawings  of  the  plans  he  was  presenting. 
He  had  been  working  so  long  with  blue  prints  and 
dimensions  in  his  own  operations  that  he  thought 
in  the  same  way  and  it  came  out  in  his  conversa- 
tion. His  occupation  influenced  his  manner  of 
talking  when  he  was  among  his  friends  in  the 
community. 

In  industry,  we  have  not  paid  as  much  atten- 
tion as  we  should  to  the  way  in  which  men's  occu- 
pations color  their  thinking  and  how  that  think- 
ing, expressed  in  action,  affects  the  community. 
You  should,  therefore,  understand  that  your  influ- 
ence as  foreman  of  the  group  which  you  govern 
is  not  confined  to  their  work  and  their  attitude 
toward  the  organization  of  which  you  are  a  part, 
nor  particularly  to  the  occupation  in  which  they 
are  engaged.  The  influence  which  you  exert  can 
be  extended  toward  aiding  the  workers  to  exercise 
their  responsibilities  as  part  of  the  community. 
Thus  the  community  may  improve  along  the  lines 
that  are  most  valuable  for  the  workers  them- 
selves, the  place  in  which  the  men  work,  their 
understanding  of  the  organization  with  which  they 
work,  and  their  understanding  of  the  way  in  which 


190  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

those  organizations  affect  the  community.  The 
better  understanding  in  the  shop  means  a  better 
understanding  in  the  neighborhood  and  a  better 
understanding  in  the  community  itself. 

The  influence  of  the  shop  radiates  into  the  com- 
munity even  more  than  the  influence  of  the  com- 
munity backs  up  into  the  shop.  It  is  in  direct- 
ing this  shop  thought  that  your  influence  as  fore- 
man can  be  used  to  the  advantage  of  the  com- 
munity. 

From  the  earliest  time,  the  craftsman  has  been 
an  important  factor  in  the  life  of  his  community. 
To  make  a  useful  product,  or  to  do  a  useful  ser- 
vice, is  about  the  most  important  thing  in  life 
anyway,  and  the  men  who  do  these  things  have 
always  given  a  certain  character  to  the  town  or 
the  village  and  finally  to  the  larger  political  group. 

The  Social  Conditions  of  the  Town. — The 
town  or  village  is  the  smallest  political  unit  just  as 
your  group  of  workers  is  the  smallest  industrial 
unit  and  the  family  is  the  social  unit.  Formerly 
every  man  made  laws  for  himself  and  for  his  fam- 
ily. There  were  no  laws  between  families,  and 
there  were  no  orders  imposed  upon  the  family  cir- 
cle from  the  outside.  As  people  became  more  in- 
telligent, they  saw  how  foolish  it  was  to  spend  time 
in  fighting  with  each  other,  as  families,  when  they 
could  spend  that  time  more  usefully  in  making 
things.  They  found  out  that  they  could  live  to- 
gether under  simple  laws  which  would  leave  them 
free  to  make  things  needed  by  all  if  they  would 
stop  fighting  and  stealing.     So  they  agreed  to  give 


The  Foreman  and  the  Community         191 

up  some  of  their  cherished  rights  by  conforming 
to  a  law  that  any  man  who  killed  another  or  who 
stole  anything  should  be  punished. 

Gradually  they  discovered  that,  instead  of  each 
man  acting  as  his  own  policeman,  it  would  save 
time  and  enable  them  to  live  more  comfortably  if 
they  hired  men  to  take  over  the  job  of  policing 
as  their  regular  service.  That  is  how  the  village 
or  the  town  evolved  its  laws  and  regulations,  with 
its  special  men  for  protection,  for  health,  and  for 
the  discharge  of  the  functions  of  government  in 
the  township, 

Living  together  in  the  town  peacefully  is  based 
upon  two  fundamental  responsibilities : 

First,  the  responsibility  of  abiding  by  the  laws 
which  a  man,  as  a  citizen,  has  agreed  to. 

Second,  the  responsibility  of  respecting  his 
neighbors'  rights  as  scrupulously  as  he  demands 
respect  for  his  own. 

It  is  because  we  know  how  necessary  it  is  for 
these  laws  to  be  observed  and  for  these  rights  to 
be  respected  that  we  have  an  organization  operat- 
ing against  those  who  do  not  obey  the  laws,  and 
who  do  not  respect  the  rights  of  their  fellow- 
citizens.  We  know  that,  unless  all  but  a  small 
proportion  of  the  people  obey  the  laws  without 
coercion  and  respect  the  rights  without  demand, 
civilization  would  be  impossible  and  we  would 
go  back  into  chaos  with  consequent  destruction. 

The  work  which  a  man  does  is  the  great  edu- 
cational factor  in  his  life,  and  it  was  out  of  the 
necessities   of   work   that   the   social   civilization 


192  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

grew.  It  is  out  of  industry  today  that  improve- 
ment in  social  conditions  must  come,  very  largely; 
and  the  foremen  in  industry,  as  the  top  sergeants 
of  this  great  army  of  workers,  can  be  a  very 
valuable  force  in  the  improvement  of  social  con- 
ditions through  their  industrial  influence. 

Public  Unconcern  about  Civil  Matters. — I  was 
asking  a  friend  of  mine — an  intelligent  railroad 
conductor — about  the  educational  system  in  his 
community,  and  he  was  obliged  to  confess  his  ig- 
norance of  the  things  which  were  taught,  the 
character  of  the  teachers,  or  the  method  of  teach- 
ing. He  said  those  things  were  up  to  the  school 
board.  Maybe;  but  it  is  absurd  to  teach  children 
a  lot  of  useless  things;  and  a  teacher  with  wrong 
views  about  life  or  society  or  industry  can  make 
a  deep  impression  upon  the  thinking  which  will 
be  done  by  the  children  when  they  have  grown 
older.  Parents  are  the  logical  persons  to  take  an 
interest  in  what  is  taught  their  children  and  who 
does  the  teaching. 

You  would  not  think  much  of  yourself,  as  a 
foreman,  if  you  had  an  assistant  hired  to  do  part 
of  your  work  and  you  did  not  attempt  to  find  out 
whether  the  work  was  being  done  well  or  ill.  Too 
frequently,  however,  we  forget  that  we,  as  citi- 
zens, are  responsible  for  the  kind  of  organization 
which  there  is  in  our  community.  We  also  forget 
that  the  production  part  of  our  community  life  is, 
after  all,  the  most  vital  part  and  the  most  potent 
in  its  influence  upon  the  social  organization. 


The  Foreman  and  the  Public  193 

Service  to  our  neighbors,  socially,  is  just  as 
important  as  service  to  people  industrially.  The 
work  of  building  a  bigger  and  better  community 
starts  in  building  a  bigger  and  better  understand- 
ing in  our  little  group  in  the  shop.  If  we  can 
manage  to  put  a  little  of  the  thought  which  we 
expend  upon  our  work,  during  working  hours,  into 
work  for  the  benefit  of  the  community  and  the 
neighborhood  during  the  rest  of  the  hours,  there 
is  no  reason  why  the  influence  exerted  by  the  shop 
on  the  town  should  be  anything  but  valuable  and 
for  the  betterment  of  our  life,  comfort,  and  con- 
venience. 


Section  II 
The  Foreman  and  the  Public 

No  Group  Is  Independent. — In  the  attempt  to 
do  all  the  great  work  of  keeping  modern  civiliza- 
tion at  its  required  speed,  we  have  become  sep- 
arated into  groups  so  far  apart  from  each  other 
that  we  voice  our  opinion  of  the  other  groups  as 
though  we  could  live  without  them,  and  as  though 
they  had  no  usefulness  in  the  scheme  of  things. 
We  give  them  names  that  mean  very  little,  and 
Ave  do  not  seem  to  appreciate  our  dependence  upon 
each  other  as  groups. 

For  years,  many  manufacturers  talked  about 
the  railroads  as  though  they  could  give  them  their 
trade  or  not  as  they  chose.  They  did  not  seem  to 
realize  that  if  the  railroads  could  not  move  goods 


194  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

fast  enough  the  manufacturer  would  be  the  first 
to  suffer. 

We  talk  labor  and  capital  as  though  they  are 
separate  and  distinct,  and  as  though  they  have  no 
intimate  dependence  on  each  other.  We  forget 
that  money  which  you  and  I  have  saved  and  put 
into  the  bank  is  loaned  on  collateral  to  various 
businesses  for  operating  purposes,  and  that  our 
savings  suffer  when  capital  is  disturbed.  The 
money,  which  the  Bolshevik  government  gave  to 
the  Herald  in  London  for  propaganda,  was  sup- 
plied through  the  smooth  working  of  the  banks 
which  act  as  the  clearing  houses  of  capital;  and 
the  very  government  which  was  occupied  in  de- 
stroying the  capitalist  system  was  supplying  the 
money  for  its  own  work  by  means  of  that  system. 

We  do  not  realize  that  modern  civilization  has 
made  us  all  neighbors,  and  that  all  are  working 
in  the  same  shop.  We  need  each  other  so  badly, 
in  order  to  supply  what  each  can't  make  for  him- 
self, that  we  are  all  in  the  same  boat.  If  I  make 
bricks  for  a  living,  somebody  else  makes  my  hats, 
shoes,  and  clothes;  supplies  me  with  cigars,  coal, 
gas,  and  electricity;  provides  my  transportation 
to  and  from  wrork,  and  a  hundred  other  things 
which  I  must  have.  I  am  indebted  to  other  men 
for  my  reading,  my  amusement,  my  recreation, 
and  my  comforts.  If  I  worked  from  early  morn- 
ing till  late  at  night,  I  could  not  make  for  myself 
more  than  a  very  few  of  these  things,  and  they 
would  be  clumsy  and  crude  and  frequently  of  lim- 
ited use.      To   supply   any  man  with  the   things 


The  Foreman  and  the  Public  195 

which  equip  his  home — no  matter  how  modest — it 
is  necessary  to  collect  materials  from  a  number  of 
countries,  and  keep  thousands  of  men  at  work  in 
many  lines  of  endeavor.  The  whole  life  of  mod- 
ern civilization  is  centered  upon  producing  goods 
or  service  for  people,  distributing  the  products 
and  the  service,  and  organizing  our  operations  so 
that  this  work  can  be  done  with  least  confusion 
and  in  the  shortest  space  of  time.  It  is  because 
we  depend  upon  each  other  so  much  and  have 
organized  this  dependence,  that  we  can  get  our 
work  done  and  still  have  free  time  for  amuse- 
ment and  recreation. 

We  Are  the  Public. — Take  any  magazine  or 
newspaper  and  read  the  articles  about  the  public, 
and  you  would  think  that  the  public  is  some  sep- 
arate part  of  the  community  which  buys  all  the 
goods  and  service  which  the  rest  of  us  are  making. 
Not  so;  you  and  I  are  the  public.  We  are  the 
ones  who  buy  all  the  stuff  we  are  making.  Only, 
instead  of  buying  from  myself,  I  am  buying  your 
work  and  you  are  buying  mine.  We  are  the  pub- 
lic, buying  from  each  other  the  products  we  have 
made;  and  selling  to  each  other  the  goods  we 
make.  So,  when  we  talk  about  the  public  we  are 
talking  about  ourselves.  Our  trade  must  be  on 
a  mutually  profitable  basis  or  we  cannot  continue 
to  live  as  we  do  today.  We  are  the  market  for 
our  goods  (speaking  of  the  whole  country)  and 
unless  we  work  together,  with  some  reasonable 
degree  of  agreement,  we  will  have  to  suffer,  be- 


196  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

cause   we   will   not   make    enough   things    to   go 
around. 

We  Are  All  Consumers. — You  need  the  things 
which  some  other  men  are  making  just  as  much 
as  they  need  what  you  are  making.  You  want  good 
service  from  the  men  who  are  making  things  for 
you,  or  rendering  you  any  service,  and  you  do  not 
want  to  pay  more  than  it  is  worth,  any  more  than 
the  other  man  wants  to  pay  you  more  than  it  is 
worth.  You  want  the  service  he  is  rendering — in 
fact,  it  is  necessary  for  you  to  have  it;  and  he 
needs  the  service  you  are  rendering — that  is  just  as 
necessary  to  him.  As  a  worker  you  have  an  obli- 
gation of  service  to  the  other  fellow,  and  as  a 
consumer  you  have  a  right  to  demand  that  same 
obligation  from  him.  We  cannot  get  more  than 
we  give  in  a  world  where  we  depend  upon  each 
other  as  much  as  we  do  in  this  modern  civilization 
of  the  United  States. 

What  Does  Education  Amount  To? — There 
are  a  whole  lot  of  men  who  think  an  educator 
should  be  content  to  get  a  small  salary,  "for," 
they  ask,  "what  does  education  amount  to,  any- 
way?" They  forget  that  it  is  the  wide  spreading 
of  knowledge  which  has  given  us  this  marvelous 
mechanical  development  with  its  wonderful  con- 
veniences and  comforts.  They  do  not  see  that  it 
is  this  constant  attempt  to  give  knowledge  to 
thousands  of  people  and  teach  them  how  to  think 
better  which  has  made  it  possible  for  these  men 
to  study  out  the  improvements  that  have  given 
us   the   thousands   of   conveniences,    amusements, 


The  Foreman  and  the  Public  197 

comforts,   and  advantages  of  which   our  grand- 
fathers knew  nothing. 

All  men  are  a  part  of  the  public.  All  men  are 
consumers  of  many  things  when  they  are  only 
workers  at  one  thing.  All  men  are  educators,  in- 
fluencing other  men  for  good  or  bad,  and  all  men 
are  citizens  of  a  country  and  of  a  state.  They  are 
residents  of  a  community  where  they  are  poli- 
ticians, either  good  or  bad  in  their  attitude  or 
influence.  So  do  not  be  fooled  by  such  terms  as 
the  public,  the  consumer,  the  worker,  the  educator, 
and  so  forth,  which  we  are  so  fond  of  quoting. 
Do  not  imagine  that  these  men  are  not  like  we 
are  and  that  we  have  nothing  in  common  with 
them.  We  are  the  public,  we  are  the  educators 
of  all  who  are  working  or  playing  with  us,  we 
are  the  workers,  and  we  are  also  the  politicians; 
for  the  government  is  ours  and  it  is  as  good  or 
as  bad  as  we  make  it  by  our  influence  and  our 
votes. 

See  That  Your  Men  Understand. — As  a  fore- 
man you  should  see  that  the  men  in  your  group 
have  some  understanding  of  these  things  and  your 
service  to  your  fellow-workers  will  be  increased 
many  fold  by  the  proper  development  of  their 
ideas  in  these  respects.  A  general  understanding 
of  these  matters  will  open  the  way  to  industrial 
improvement  and  social  improvement  beyond  the 
greatest  dreams  of  the  most  intelligent  of  workers, 
and  will  be  of  more  benefit  than  all  the  theoretical 
programs  put  forth  by  impractical  visionaries. 


198  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Section  III 
The  Foreman  and  the  Town 

Rise  of  the  Town. — What  is  the  thing  we  call 
the  town,  the  city,  or  the  village?  A  good  many 
men  have  studied  these  aggregations  of  human 
beings  and  have  written  many  books  with  long 
words  and  much  argument  to  prove  that  the  whole 
system  of  social  organization  has  grown  up  for 
this  reason  or  that  reason.  We  are  not  concerned 
with  these  weighty  matters  here,  but  it  is  well  to 
know  a  little  about  how  these  social  groups  grew. 
Maybe  by  that  means  we  may  find  out  our  place 
in  them  and  what  they  mean  to  us. 

Well,  when  the  old  Saxons  conquered  England 
many  hundred  years  ago,  the  leader  and  his  wife, 
with  their  followers,  their  children  and  their 
servants'  children,  their  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and 
so  forth,  settled  on  some  land,  where  they  built  a 
number  of  rude  wooden  houses,  surrounded  the 
whole  with  a  strong  fence  and  called  it  a  town. 
Everybody  that  belonged  to  the  same  outfit  lived 
together,  fought  on  the  same  side,  and  worked  to 
benefit  the  same  crowd.  They  were  in  the  same 
town.  They  lived  together  peaceably,  although 
they  might  fight  often  with  the  people  of  another 
town.  The  principal  occupations,  outside  of  fight- 
ing other  towns,  were  farming,  the  making  of 
clothes — with  all  the  processes  that  the  job  im- 
plies— and,  in  fact,  the  making  of  everything  that 
was  needed,  from  the  weapons  and  the  tools  to 
the  ornaments  for  the  dwellings.     Every  year  the 


The  Foreman  and  the  Town  100 

men  of  the  town  met  together  to  decide  on  the 
rules  and  regulations  which  they  would  agree  to 
abide  by  and  to  choose  such  leaders  as  would  best 
serve  the  interests  of  all. 

The  Town  Meetings. — There  are  some  things 
which  can  be  worked  out  for  the  people  who  live 
in  the  same  place  and  have  the  same  common 
necessities.  These  matters  can  best  be  taken  care 
of  by  the  cooperation  of  all  the  people  living  in 
that  place.  Thus  the  town  becomes  a  cooperative 
unit.  In  early  days,  when  the  town  was  gradually 
being  organized,  one  representative  of  each  fam- 
ily— the  head  of  the  family — was  entitled  to  his 
say  in  the  affairs  of  the  town  and  to  register  his 
opinion  about  them.  That  is  how  the  voting  in 
town  meetings  arose.  As  the  towns  grew  larger, 
the  citizen  could  not  leave  his  work  every  day  to 
attend  a  town  meeting  to  decide  something  which 
was  important,  perhaps,  but  not  so  important  to 
him  as  his  work.  So  the  citizens  decided  to  elect 
from  their  number  certain  men,  who  would  be 
paid  to  spend  enough  time  on  the  town  matters 
to  get  them  done,  one  man  to  be  chosen  for  every 
so  many  citizens.  The  men  who  were  chosen  in 
this  way  were  expected  to  take  the  burden  of  town 
affairs  from  the  shoulders  of  the  townspeople;  and 
the  people  decided  that  each  citizen  should  give, 
according  to  his  possessions,  a  certain  sum  to  the 
town  to  provide  the  money  to  pay  the  special  rep- 
resentatives who  were  to  get  the  work  done. 

Industry  vs.  the  Town  Meeting. — If  we  were 
to   compare    the   town   with   an   organization   in 


200  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

industry,  we  would  say  that  the  little  group  of 
workers  under  the  foreman,  concerned  with  the 
same  piece  of  work,  is  to  industry  the  same  as  the 
family  to  the  social  unit.  This  group  is  the  oldest 
and  smallest  industrial  cooperative  unit.  The  town 
would  be  represented  by  the  factory  which  is 
made  of  many  small  groups  working  on  a  common 
object  in  the  same  place  with  the  same  heads  and 
the  same  policy. 

Both  the  town  and  the  factory  are  the  most 
important  units  in  the  cooperative  effort  in  mod- 
ern life.  They  are  the  places  where  the  coopera- 
tive problems  must  be  worked  out  first.  They 
are  the  units  which  must  provide  a  unity  of  de- 
velopment before  the  greater  cooperation  can  be- 
come effective;  and  they  are  the  places  where  the 
necessary  understanding  must  be  worked  out. 

What  Factory  Organizations  Mean  to  the 
Tozvn. — The  town  will  transfer  into  its  social  life 
the  kind  of  organization  which  exists  in  the  fac- 
tories located  within  its  borders.  If  there  is  no 
unity  in  the  factory,  if  there  is  no  attention  to  the 
proper  understanding,  there  will  be  little  coopera- 
tion in  the  community  and  much  division  in  its 
councils.  Many  are  the  towns  which  illustrate 
this.  Men  are  chosen,  not  because  they  are  capa- 
ble of  being  most  beneficial  to  the  town  and  its 
necessities,  but  because  they  represent  the  labor 
union,  or  they  are  known  to  be  supported  by  the 
manufacturers,  or  they  are  liked  by  the  merchants. 
There  is  no  unity  of  understanding  as  to  the  mu- 
tual obligation  which  rests  upon  the  citizens  to  do 


The  Foreman  and  the  Town  201 

the  work  of  the  town  through  the  choice  of  the 
right  men  to  rim  it  and  administer  its  affairs. 

The  town  is  divided  in  its  councils  because  the 
working  life  is  divided  and  there  is  no  understand- 
ing of  the  mutual  dependence  in  either  case.  The 
merchants  do  not  understand  how  closely  their 
welfare  is  dependent  upon  the  welfare  of  all  the 
citizens,  so  they  feel  that  some  of  the  representa- 
tives should  represent  the  merchants'  interests 
only.  The  workers  have  no  confidence  in  the 
management  of  the  factories  and  think  that  they 
will  want  to  run  the  town  for  their  own  benefit, 
so  they  insist  on  electing,  not  the  best  men  for 
the  town,  but  the  men  who  will  protect  the  work- 
ers' interests  exclusively.  The  manufacturers  feel 
that  they  are  expected  to  furnish  too  much  of  the 
money  to  run  the  town  without  having  the  chance 
to  say  anything  about  how  it  shall  be  spent,  so 
they  try  to  assure  themselves  of  the  friendly  in- 
tention of  the  candidates  for  the  offices. 

Good  Industrial  Organization  Means  a  Good 
Town. — If  the  industrial  life  of  the  town  is  run 
on  a  basis  of  mutual  understanding  the  town  will 
begin  to  operate  along  right  cooperative  lines. 
You  see  how  intimately  the  life  of  the  town  is 
associated  with  the  life  of  the  industries  within 
its  borders  and  the  kind  of  men  engaged  in  these 
industries.  The  community  is  the  same  group  of 
men  who  run  the  industries — the  management 
and  the  workers.  These  men  are  no  different  in 
spirit  when  they  work  for  or  think  of  the  town 
than  they  are  when  they  are   thinking  of  their 


202  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

work.  They  are  more  interested  in  their  work 
and  are  likely  to  be  more  intelligent  in  that  mat- 
ter. That  is  the  only  difference.  The  spirit  is 
the  same,  however,  and  it  will  find  its  expression 
in  the  character  of  the  town,  the  divisions  in  its 
politics,  the  methods  of  its  operations,  and  the 
results  obtained. 

The  Foreman  in  Local  Politics. — Your  influ- 
ence is  of  importance  in  the  improvement  of  town 
affairs.  A  new  spirit  in  the  town  will  react  upon 
the  workers  and  management  in  the  industries  of 
the  town  and  on  the  merchants.  You  can  improve 
the  whole  community  when  the  work  and  spirit  of 
the  town  are  improved.  The  whole  life  of  the 
community  is  too  cooperative  for  an  improvement 
to  be  effected  in  one  place  without  this  improve- 
ment affecting  the  rest  of  the  community. 

No  man  has  done  his  duty  when  he  has  merely 
done  his  work  and  voted  his  ticket.  His  obliga- 
tion for  service  to  other  men  in  industry  is  no 
greater  than  his  obligation  for  service  to  the  rest 
of  the  community.  The  one  must  be  considered 
with  the  other,  if  both  are  to  have  their  measure 
of  improvement  in  the  future  as  they  have  had  in 
the  past.  Indeed,  they  must  improve  to  a  greater 
degree  if  they  are  to  keep  pace  with  the  multiply- 
ing requirements  of  the  future  population.  Just 
as  it  is  the  spirit  of  service,  mutually  discharged, 
which  will  improve  industry,  so  it  is  the  spirit  of 
mutual  service  which  will  help  the  community. 


The  Foreman  and  the  Government         203 

Section  IV 
The  Foreman  and  the  Government 

What  Is  the  Government? — The  government, 
at  least  that  part  of  it  which  we  term  political,  is 
divided,  like  industry,  into  large  and  small  units 
of  operation.  It  is  really  the  development  of  the 
orderly  life  of  the  people  toward  the  management 
of  their  common  or  cooperative  affairs.  The 
necessity  for  these  cooperative  affairs  can  be  illus- 
trated in  the  making  of  roads.  If  a  number  of 
people  living  on  the  same  street  want  that  street 
improved,  they  can  get  together  and  agree  to  an 
assessment  of  the  property  to  take  care  of  the  cost. 
If  the  community  wants  to  plan  out  improved 
streets  for  the  whole  town,  then  it  is  necessary  for 
a  majority  of  all  the  taxpayers  to  agree  to  having 
the  streets  improved. 

Suppose,  then,  that  it  is  desirable  to  extend 
these  improved  roads  so  that  the  farmers  and 
country  people  can  get  in  and  out  more  easily; 
it  is  necessary  to  have  an  agreement  with  the 
farmers,  which  means  that  the  whole  county  is 
concerned.  Again,  there  are  a  number  of  towns 
in  different  counties  with  needs  for  transportation 
between  them.  It  becomes  advisable,  then,  to  pro- 
vide good  roads  to  give  this  transportation.  It  is 
necessary  to  get  an  agreement  between  all  these 
places,  and  so  it  becomes  a  state  matter  to  be  de- 
cided by  the  voters  of  the  state. 

Government  simply  means  the  arrangement  of 
the  cooperative  affairs  of  a  number  of  people  liv- 


204  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

ing  in  the  same  town,  county,  state,  or  country,  so 
that  these  matters  will  be  taken  care  of  properly 
and  for  the  benefit  of  all  the  people  concerned. 

The  Voice  of  the  Voters. — In  this  country,  the 
government  is  the  collective  voice  of  the  voters, 
and  the  majority  agreement  is  the  decision.  As 
the  population  increases  and  the  affairs  of  co- 
operation— laws,  regulations,  construction  of  new 
conveniences,  information,  and  all  the  other  oper- 
ations of  common  requirements — grow  in  volume 
and  complexity,  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  the 
citizen  to  give  his  individual  time  to  these  matters. 
It  would  be  impossible  for  the  average  citizen  to 
arrange  all  governmental  affairs  in  an  orderly  way 
even  if  he  could  devote  the  time  necessary  for  such 
matters.  Men  are,  therefore,  elected  by  the  voters, 
or  appointed  by  the  representatives  of  the  voters, 
to  conduct  the  operations  of  the  government,  to 
see  that  the  citizens  are  protected,  that  laws  are 
obeyed,  and  that  the  government  services  are 
properly  rendered. 

Government  Is  Business. — Government  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  public  business 
which  you  and  I  need  to  maintain  our  orderly  and 
peaceful  relations.  Just  as  industry  is  govern- 
ment— the  government  of  production  and  distribu- 
tion; so  government  is  business — the  business  of 
orderly  social  cooperation.  Government  is  ar- 
ranged as  it  is  in  order  that  we  may  do  our  work 
with  less  trouble  and  with  more  convenience,  com- 
fort, and  recreation.  Unless  we  understand  this 
and  use  our  votes  and  our  citizen  rights  to  see 


The  Foreman  and  the  Government        205 

that  government  is  carried  on  effectively,  we  can- 
not go  ahead  with  industry  as  we  should  in  order 
to  enjoy  a  fuller  life. 

We  have  mentioned  the  fact  that  you  cannot 
expect  to  get  service  from  other  workers  unless 
you  give  service.  We  cannot  expect  to  secure  our 
rights  as  citizens  and  keep  them  secure  unless  we 
fulfil  our  obligations  as  citizens.  Our  industrial 
progress  and  our  governmental  improvement  are 
bound  up  in  each  other  so  intimately  that  each  man 
must  fulfil  his  service  to  each  of  them  in  order  to 
secure  his  rights  from  both. 

The  Government  Is  What  We  Make  It. — Very 
often  the  way  we  talk  about  the  government  would 
indicate  that  we  think  it  is  something  entirely  sep- 
arate and  distinct  from  our  own  work,  our  own 
life,  and  our  own  responsibilities.  Just  as  we 
forget  that  we  ourselves  are  the  public — both  pro- 
ducers and  consumers  of  goods — so  we  entirely 
lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  we  are  the  government 
and  that  we  have  only  delegated  the  work  of  man- 
agement to  those  we  elect.  The  responsibility  for 
good  government  still  rests  upon  us  as  citizens, 
and  the  progress  governmentally  will  be  just  the 
kind  of  progress  we  permit. 

Rights  vs.  Obligations. — In  the  Preamble  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  there  is  a  refer- 
ence to  the  inalienable  rights  of  the  individual. 
That  means  those  rights  of  the  individual  which 
cannot  be  delegated  to  anyone  else  and  which 
cannot  be  taken  away  from  him  by  delegation  of 
any  kind.     Of  course,   this  does  not  mean  that 


206  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

some  of  us  have  those  rights  and  some  of  us  do 
not.  If  we  are  all  created  equal  and  have  equal 
opportunity  for  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of 
happiness,  then  it  is  obvious  that  we  must  recog- 
nize the  rights  of  the  other  fellow  to  the  same 
things  that  we  demand  for  ourselves.  The  fact 
that  sidewalks  are  public  property  and  that  I  am 
entitled  to  walk  upon  them  does  not  entitle  me  to 
jostle  somebody  else  off  the  sidewalk  because  I 
do  not  feel  like  stepping  aside. 

It  is  a  pity  that  we  are  always  insisting  so  much 
on  the  rights  which  we  have  and  the  obligations 
which  other  people  owe  to  us,  and  we  pay  so 
little  attention  to  the  rights  which  they  have  and 
the  obligations  which  we  must  admit  toward 
them.  It  is  only  because  we  recognize  these  rights 
and  obligations  in  connection  with  all  the  ordinary 
laws,  that  we  can  live  together  in  a  peaceable  so- 
ciety without  much  destruction.  No  police  power 
could  be  used  which  would  be  big  enough  to 
oblige  us  to  obey  these  laws,  if  we  were  not  al- 
ready convinced  that  they  are  necessary. 

Government  Is  Service. — The  basis  of  govern- 
ment is  just  the  same  as  the  basis  of  industrial 
cooperation.  It  is  necessary  for  each  worker  to 
recognize  his  obligation  for  service  to  the  other 
workers,  and  his  right  to  demand  service  from 
them.  In  social  life,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to 
recognize  our  obligation  to  observe  the  laws,  to 
live  peaceably  with  our  neighbors,  to  take  our  part 
in  government  decisions,  and  to  fulfil  the  rest  of 
our  obligations  as  citizens;  just  as  it  is  our  right 


The  Foreman  and  the  Government        207 

to  demand  the  same  consideration  from  the  other 
citizens.  If  we  attempt  to  get  laws  which  will 
benefit  ourselves  only  and  which  work  a  hardship 
upon  others,  we  are  taking  advantage  and  at- 
tempting to  secure  something  which  it  is  not  our 
right  to  demand.  It  makes  no  difference  whether 
this  be  advantage  in  taxation  or  tariff;  or  whether 
it  be  advantage  in  fire,  health,  or  road  regulation; 
or  laws  relating  to  hours  of  labor  and  conditions 
of  work.  None  of  these  is  within  our  rights  unless 
it  benefits  the  whole  community  or  is  calculated 
to  remove  any  injustice  under  which  we  labor. 

Cooperation  Implies  Discipline. — Cooperation 
means  also  discipline  in  the  working  out  of  all 
orderly  government.  A  democratic  government 
differs  from  an  autocratic  government  mostly  in 
the  fact  that  the  democratic  government  expects 
each  citizen  to  discipline  himself  into  recognition 
of  the  rights  of  the  other  fellow,  the  necessity  of 
obedience  to  the  law,  and  the  discharge  of  all  his 
citizenship  obligations.  The  autocratic  govern- 
ment disciplines  its  subjects  in  its  own  way  with- 
out their  consent  or  desire.  It  does  not  expect 
them  to  discharge  any  citizenship  duties  because 
of  their  personal  discipline,  but  because  it  orders 
them  to  perform  their  duties. 

The  democratic  government  depends  for  its  suc- 
cess upon  the  way  in  which  each  citizen  is  willing 
to  discipline  himself  in  the  discharge  of  his  re- 
sponsibility toward  the  general  body,  and  this  is 
the  only  basis  on  which  it  can  progress  toward 
unity  of  purpose. 


208  The  Foreman  and  His  Job 

Questions  for  You  to  Answer 

1.  What  is  "Democracy"  in  industry? 

2.  What  data  should  go  on  a  Repair  Order? 

3.  How  shall  the  foreman  get  cooperation  from 
the  tool  room? 

4.  What  kind  of  help  should  the  Superintend- 
ent's Office  give  to  the  foreman? 

5.  How  far  should  the  foreman  go  in  using  the 
knowledge  of  the  Engineering  and  other 
technical  departments? 

6.  Name  some  specific  forms  of  service  which 
the  foreman  should  render  to  his  workmen. 

7.  What  are  the  results  to  be  expected  when 
responsibilities  are  divided? 

8.  How  can  the  foreman  best  serve  the  super- 
intendent ? 

9.  What  should  the  owners  of  the  business  ex- 
pect from  the  foreman? 

10.  What  influence  can  the  foreman  exert  on  the 
community  ? 

11.  How  intimate  is  the  relationship  between  the 
industries  in  a  town  and  its  government? 

12.  What  is  your  relation  to  state  and  national 
government? 

13.  What  is  just  government? 

14.  What  is  the  difference  between  "rights"  and 
"obligations"? 

15.  What  is  necessary  to  get  cooperation? 


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